Mordecai M. Noah, his life and work from the Jewish viewpoint

1

MORDLCAI M. NOAH

It:', '

HIS LIFE AND WORK

. FPOM THL JEWISH VIE \>P01NT

BY

A. B. MAKOVE.R

■m

ml

NEW YORK

BLOCH PUBLISHING COMPANY

1917

P''

to<iVAGG

TTY

ColumtJia Wini\}tviitp

in tl)E Citp of Jgeto gorfe

LIBRARY

< i;

li-

MORDECAI M. \0ATT

MORDLCAI M. NOAH

HIS LIFE AND WORK

FROM THE JLWI5H VILWPOINT

BY

A. B. MAKOVLR

NEW YORK

BLOCH PUBLISHING COMPANY

1917

y

' i'j ' ^^ ^6h

Copyright, 1917

BY

A. B. Makover

a:

MORDLCAI M. NOAH

HI5 LIFE AND WORK

FROM THL JLWI5H VIEWPOINT

**We will return to Zion as we went forth," said
Mordecai Noah in 1824, three quarters of a
century before the first Zionist Congress at Basle,
"bringing back the faith we carried away with us.
The temple under Solomon which we built as
Jews we must again erect as the chosen people.
For two thousand years we have been pursued
and persecuted, and we are yet here; assemblages
of men have formed communities, built cities,
established governments, and yet tae are here.
Rome conquered Greece and she was no longer
Greece. Rome in turn became conquered, and
there are but few traces now of the once mistress
of the world ; yet we are here, like the fabled
' Phoenix, ever springing from its ashes, or, more
beautifully typical, like the bush of Moses, which
ever burns, yet never consumes."

There are few more appealing figures in the '
history of Zionism than he who uttered these
words. He was the first American Zionist, a
Zionist before the movement had received a

4 MORDECAI M.NOAH

name,* a lawyer, diplomat, philanthropist, a leader
in Israel and a loyal and true American. Born at
the close of the Revolutionary War, Mordecai
Noah lived through the period of American ex-
pansion and died at the time when the preliminary
quarrels over the question of slavery were going
on. It is interesting to note that on this latter
point his sympathies were decidedly with the
South. The span of his life covered a critical
period of sixty-six years in the development of the
new republic and Noah was one who contributed
bountifully of his energy and of his talents to the
welfare of the United States.

Mordecai Manuel Noah was born in the city of
Philadelphia, then the capital of the United States,
on July 19th, 1785, several years after the war of
Independence. He died in New York City, March
22, 1851. The Noah family was of Portuguese
Jewish stock, and many of the descendants were
in the fore in important matters of business and
state. It has been asserted that his mother was
descended from a disinguished family of Maran-
nos, which left Lisbon for London in order to
escape the Inquisition, and later emigrated to
America.** "He was the eldest son," Simon Wolf
tells us, "of Manuel Mordecai Noah, of Charles-

*The term Zionism in contradistinction to "Chovevei
Zion" — "Lovers of Zion" — was first used by Matthias
Acher (Birnbaum) in his paper, "Selbst-Emancipation,"
read in 1886.

**Dr. M. Kayserling: "£m Judenstaat-Griinder*', Allge-
meine Zeitung des Judentums, 1898, p. 101.

MORDECAI M.NOAH 5

ton, South Carolina, a patriot of the revolution,
and Zipporah Phillips Noah, the daughter of
Robert Phillips of Philadelphia, one of the most
prominent patriots of the Revolutionary period."
His father served in General Washington's army,
and a tradition in the Noah family persists, to the
effect that our first President was a guest at the
wedding of Mordecai's parents.

Noah was left an orphan at an early age, and
was apprenticed to a carver and guilder to learn
his handicraft. He managed, however, to attend
school for a few hours each day, and, being of a
studious disposition, succeeded in educating him-
self in all manner of learning. Among his class-
mates were Stephen Decatur and his brother John,
of whom the former subsequently attained emi-
nent distinction for his services to his country in
the American Navy. Years after Noah and
Decatur were boys at school, at the time when
the United States were conducting a war against
the North African pirates, the two men met, Noah
as the American Consul at Tunis, Algiers, and
Stephen Decatur as Commodore of the fleet in
those waters. While the squadron lay off Cape
Carthage, the Consul of the United States was
received by the heroic commander with the usual
honors accorded by American representatives to
each other when they meet in strange lands.

When a boy, Noah was a member of a Thespian
company; he performed the duties of cutting the|
plays, substituting new passages, casting partSy/^
and writing couplets at the exits. The little^

6 MORDECAI M.NOAH

company did not last long, for their audiences
were admitted without cost and the expenses be-
came too heavy for the youthful actors to survive.
The Thespian Society included, besides young
Noah, the celebrated actor, Edwin Forrest, who
was eleven years old at the time, and Joseph C.
Neale. From boyhood on, Noah was a constant
attendant at the Chestnut Street Theatre. He
seldom missed a night, and, after his varied ex-
periences, he wrote a melodrama, under the title
of The Fortress of Sorrento ; as, however, he did
not possess enough money to pay for printing, or
sufficient influence to have it acted, he thrust the
manuscript into his pocket, went to New York
where he called at David Longworth's Dramatic
Repository one day and struck a bargain with the
owner by giving him the play in return for a copy
of each play that Longworth had published.

During his years as guilder's apprentice, Noah
was in the habit of spending most of his evenings
at the Franklin Library in Philadelphia, where his
obvious assiduity and attractive manly appearance
and demeanor drew the attention of Robert
Morris, the financier, who personally obtained for
him a clerkship in the Auditor's Office at the
United States Treasury. Noah held this position
until the national capital was moved to Wash-
ington, in 1800, and the boy, then only 15 years
of age, went to Harrisburg to represent a news-
paper at the Pennsylvania Legislature. Here he
gained his first experience in the field of journal-
ism, in which he later became a potent leader.

MORDECAI M.NOAH 7

Four or five years after Noah had settled himself
in Harrisburg, he went to Charleston, S. C, where
he studied law, at the same time editing the
"Charleston City Gazette". The relations be-
tween this country and England were, at that
time, very much strained, and, finally, were com-
pletely broken off in the war of 1812. Noah ad-
vocated war in the columns of his paper, writing
many fiery articles over the pen-name of *'Muley
Molack," and in so doing incurred the enmity of
the pacifists. He was challenged to several duels
and in one encounter he killed his antagonist.

From Noah's contributions to various period-
icals, and the character and variety of his writ-
ings, it is evident that he was one of the shining
literary lights of the period. He was a friend of
George P. Morris and other unremembered liter-
ati of this country. His editorials and short
articles were so stimulating and enjoyable that
they became very popular. Major Noah (he was
an officer of the New York militia, attaining the
rank of major), was recognized as the best ''para-
grapher" of his day.

Noah's literary activity won for him an im-
portant place in American letters. Many of his
writings were of a political nature, yet he still
found time to write a half dozen or more plays.
He wrote the following: "The Fortress of
Sorrento", "The Grecian Captive", "The Grand
Canal", "Marion, or The Hero of Lake George",
"O Yes, or The New Constitution", "She Would
be a Soldier", "The Siege of Tripoli", "Paul and

8 MORDECAI M.NOAH

Alexis", "Yesef Caramatti", "all of which were
produced with great success," says Dunlap. It
should not be forgotten that most of his plays
were written while he was editing a daily paper
and midst the fierce contests of political strife.

In a letter to Mr. Wm. Dunlap, author of "A
History of the American Theatre", Noah throws
light on his activities as a playwright :

"As the struggle for liberty in Greece was the
prevailing excitement, I finished the melodrama
of "The Grecian Captive", which was brought out
with all the advantages of good scenery and
music. As "a good house" was of more conse-
quence to the actor than fame to the author, it
was resolved that the hero of the piece should
make his appearance on an elephant, and the
heroine on a camel, which were procured from a
neighboring menagerie, and the "toute ensemble"
was sufficiently imposing, only it happened that
the huge elephant, in shaking his skin, so rocked
the castle on his back, that the Grecian general
nearly lost his balance, and was in imminent
danger of coming down from his "high estate," to
the infinite merriment of the audience. On this
occasion, to use another significant phrase, a
"gag" was hit upon of a new character altogether.
The play was printed and each auditor was pre-
sented with a copy gratis as he entered the house.
Figure for yourself a thousand people in a theatre,
each with a book of the play in hand — imagine
the turning over of a thousand leaves simul-
taneously, the buzz and fluttering it produced,

MORDECAI M.NOAH 9

and you will readily believe that the actors en-
tirely forgot their parts, and even the equanimity
of the elephant and camel were essentially dis-
turbed.

"My last appearance as a dramatic author was
in another national piece, "The Siege of Tripoli",
which the managers persuaded me to bring out
for my own benefit, being my first attempt to
derive a profit from dramatic efforts. The piece
was elegantly got up — the house crowded with
beauty and fashion — everything went ofif in the
happiest manner; when, a short time after the
audience had retired, the Park Theatre was dis-
covered to be on fire, and in a short time was a
heap of ruins. This conflagration burnt out all
my dramatic fire and energy, since which I have
been, as you well know, peacably employed." It
is said that Noah gave his entire portion of the
proceeds of this performance to the actors, who
had lost all their personal belongings in the fire.
As a writer of essays, Noah was gifted with a
lively style which abounded in a common sense,
calculated to appeal to that vast misunderstood
class, too frequently described as "average readers."
His writings are, moreover, tempered with a dig-
nified kindliness and thoughtfulness, indicative of
an amiable disposition and good breeding. He
is so convincingly friendly and considerate that
one's confidence is instantly gained. In a collec-
tion of his newspaper essays, published in 1845,
which Noah entitled "Gleanings from a Gathered
Harvest", these characteristics are markedly dis-

10 MORDECAI M.NOAH

played. The essays deal with large and petty vices
of that period (common, indeed, in all latter-day
periods of human history), and might well be called
"Lessons in Prudence, Economy and Industry".
The writer includes one of these in the appendix
of this account for the delight of the reader.*

In 1811, Mordecai Manuel Noah received the
appointment of American Consul for Riga, Russia,
but at that period this post held forth no induce-
ments because of the commercial obstacles created
through the war on the continent, which was then
being waged with great vigor. It was the year
in which Alexander I. had broken his alliance
with Napoleon, who from that time was a con-
stant and powerful foe. Russia was almost in-
cessantly at war, the national debt and the burden
of taxation had been augmented, and though
Alexander was unmistakably liberal, a consulship
in a chaotic country did not appeal to Noah.
President Madison, after two years of delibera-
tion, during which time he had had ample oppor-
tunity for forming a perfect knowledge of the
character, claims and qualifications of Major
Noah, appointed him, in 1813, Consul for the
Kingdom and City of Tunis, which was a salaried
office and a trust of importance. War had been
declared against the United States by the Alge-
. fines. Mr. Lear, the American Consul-General,
was rudely dismissed, and a vessel from Salem,
Mass., was captured and her crew made prisoners.

*See Appendix A.

MORDECAI M.NOAH 11

Noah was instructed to negotiate for the re-
lease of these captives and it was determined that
he should have entire charge of affairs in the
Mediterranean. The appointment was accepted.

Thus began his services for the Government.
His task was a difficult one, requiring the exer-
cise of shrewd diplomacy and subjecting his per-
son to the risks of Oriental hospitality. The re-
lations of the United States with the Barbary
States were peculiarly uncertain, and the policies
of those regencies were but imperfectly under-
stood in this country. Foreigners needed strong
protection, for they were not very welcome to
Mussulmans.

Noah had another motive for directing his steps
towards that quarter of the globe. He desired to
obtain authentic information relative to the situa-
tion, character, resources, and numerical force of
the Jews in Barbary, many of whom were immi-
grants from Judaea and Egypt. The only Jewish
traveler in those countries, whose works were ex-
tant, was the Spaniard, Benjamin of Tudela in
Spain, who traveled in the 13th century. Noah
visited England, Erance, Spain, and the Barbary,
faithfully recording his observations as he pro-
ceeded. At length, after many delays, incon-
veniences and perils, the Major arrived in Tunis.
He found the city filthy in the extreme and by no
means a comfortable residence. There were about
one hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants, one
fifth of whom were Jews. A clique of Jewish
citizens, he found, controlled the commerce of the

12 MORDECAI M.NOAH

country and were very intimate with the rulers,
with whom they were constantly allied for the
carrying out of lucrative deals and shady intri-
gues. These matters, together with the mode of
life of the Jews in the various countries he had
visited, Noah recounts with historical accuracy
in his "Travels in England, France, Spain, and the
Barbary States", published in New York and
London in 1819. From this work, I take the
liberty of quoting the following rather lengthy
account of the Jews in Barbary :

'Tn glancing at the various inhabitants, which
chance, or the persecutions of an unfeeling world,
have driven to this quarter of the globe, I should
not omit noticing the Jews. Indeed, on this sub-
ject, more will be expected from me than from
casual observers. Professing the same religion,
and representing a Christian nation in an im-
portant station, and in an interesting part of the
world, it will be supposed that opportunity and
inclination must have combined to afford the most
correct information on the subject ; while, on the
other hand, an equality of rights, a reasonable
participation of honors and office, together with
the advantages of society and education, unite to
banish those prejudices, inseparable from dark
minds, and feelings wounded and irritated. If
on this subject I should not say much, what I
shall say will be the result of close observation.
On the numerical force, wealth, and disposition
for emancipation among these descendants of the
Patriarchs, I have a small volume, the publication

MORDECAI M. NOAH 13

of which may be dangerous to them, while the
north of Africa is in the hands of the Barbarians,
and I am not without hopes that the time will
come, when some civilized power, capable and
determined, will wrest that fine portion of the
world from the hands of the assassins, and re-
lieve an unfortunate race, who only require mild-
ness and tolerance to make it useful and bene-
ficial.

"The Israelites banished from Spain and Portu-
gal by the bigotry of their monarchs, and for
which these kingdoms have long since languished
and decayed, sought refuge in the Barbary States,
in which there were originally but 200,000. They
found in Fez, Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli, an im-
mense number of their brethren, originally from
Judaea and Egypt, many of whom had descended
from the Canaanites that fled from Joshua and
settled in Mauretania Tingitania. Such was the fate
and the fortune of these proscribed and unhappy
people. They wandered with no other king but
their God, no other law than his precepts and
ordinances ; they bent under persecutions, yet,
wherever the intolerance of the times compelled
them to go, they found their brethren, with ad-
mirable constancy, ready to share with them their
fortunes, and, if necessary, to sacrifice their lives
for each other. In the Barbary States, they found
a refuge from the Inquisition, from torture and
from the "auto da fe", they were compelled to
abandon their splendid dwellings and the luxury
of wealth, they met from Mussulmans insult and

14 MORDECAI M. NOAH

oppression, yet they were tolerated, and they
sought consolation in that religion which teaches
them to have but one God, to obey his command-
ments and rely on his protection. They were
taught, by the doctrines of their law, to suffer
patiently the penance of a loss of national liberty;
for a disregard in early periods to the principles
of that law, they were dispersed according to the
word of God, and in conformity to his promise,
they patiently bend to the intolerance of the
times, and await the certain period of their de-
liverance, satisfied, from the well-known and ad-
mitted fact, that they have been preserved pure
and unalloyed, amidst the wreck of worlds and
the ruins of nature, and that this miraculous pre-
servation must eventuate in their restoration to
their ancient rights. . . From the most correct data
which I could obtain, I have reason to believe
that the number of Jews in the Barbary States
exceeds 700,000, of which nearly 100,000 are
capable of bearing arms. Much has been said of
the severe and cruel treatment of the Jews by the
Mussulmans — this I did not observe; that they are
treated with indignity and insult there is no doubt;
they are compelled to wear a black dress, they are
not permitted to pass a Mosque with their shoes
on, they pay a heavy capitation tax, and minor
insults growing out of a general system and cus-
toms long observed. These were predicated on
policy : the Moors found an immense and increas-
ing people professing a different faith — active,
enterprising, and rich — fearful, then, of an in-

MORDECAI M.NOAH 15

crease of a confederacy, composed of materials
capable of revolutionizing and governing the
country, they united to oppress and insult them,
and yet tolerated them. An erroneous impression
prevails, that the religion of the Jews is an object
of hatred to Mussulmans and the cause of this
oppression. This is not the case, because the
Mohammedan faith does not materially differ
from the Jewish, and their hatred towards
Christians is yet more fierce and irreconcilable ;
but the Jews have no protectors, they are con-
sidered by Mussulmans as abandoned by all na-
tions, because they will not renounce their ancient
faith, and yet, with all this apparent oppression,
the Jews are the leading men, they are in Barbary
the principal mechanics, they are at the head of

. the custom-house, they farm the revenues; the ex-
portation of various articles and the monopoly of
various merchandise are secured to them by pur-

- chase, they control the mint and regulate the
coinage of money, they keep the Bey's jewels and
valuable articles, and are his treasurers, secre-
taries, and interpreters; the little known of arts,

• science and medicine, is confined to the Jews ;
there are many who are possessed of immense
wealth, many who are poor. How then is it that
these people, so important and so necessary,
should be so oppressed! The fact is, this oppres-
sion is, in a great measure, imaginary. A Turk
strikes a Jew, who dares not return the blow, but
he complains to the Bey and has justice done him.
If a Jew commits crime, if the punishment affects

16 MORDECAI M.NOAH

his life, these people, so national, always purchase
his pardon ; the disgrace of one afifects the whole
community; they are ever in the presence of the
Bey, every Minister has two or three Jewish
agents, and when they unite to attain an object,
it cannot be prevented. These people, then, what-
ever may be said of their oppression, possess a
very controlling influence, their friendship is
worthy of being preserved by public functionaries,
and their opposition is to be dreaded. The in-
trigue which the Jewish merchants set on foot, to
obtain from me the prize goods at their own
valuation, I could not, with all my efforts, effectu-
ally destroy, as I discovered that the Bey, his
brother, two sons, and several of his officers, were
interested in the result. Their skill in business,
and the advantage which they take of Christians
and Moors, have been the subject of severe and
just animadversion; they will, if not narrowly
watched, avail themselves of opportunities to over-
reach and defraud; for this, the world has
showered upon them opprobrium and insult. But
has the world ever held out proper inducements
for the Jews to be honest, except in countries
where they enjoy equal privileges? If they are
just, they are not credited for it ; if they possess
merit, they are not encouraged and rewarded ; if
they do a good action, approbation does not fol-
low; proscribed and insulted, their virtues denied,
public opinion attaching to them the odium due
to bad men of all persuasions, no friend, no solace
in misfortune, haunted, despised, and shunned, it

MORDECAI M. NOAH 17

is still asked of them to be honest, when they re-
ceive no reward or gratitude for their honesty,
when no man will give them credit for one good
action! — What is the incitement to virtue? The
approbation of conscience and the world ; the Jew
in Barbary has no friend but his wealth, that pur-
chases protection and toleration, and he is ever
zealous and active in the accumulation of it, and if
he is not fastidious in the mode of his acquire-
ment, he is not singular — exclusive honesty is the
property of no sect.

"As a proof that the Jew in Tunis can exercise
a very important influence, I shall relate one fact
which touches us nearly : Upon some frivolous
occasion an American Consul beat a Jew, who was
attached to the Custom-house ; the Jew com-
plained to the Hamouda Pacha, who ordered that
the Consul should openly beg pardon of said Jew
in the Custom-house, and as a proof of humility,
should kiss him — which was done. This was an
act of justice, on the part of the Bey, though it
was not flattering to our nation, nor to the officer,
who could persecute the persecuted, proscribe the
proscribed. The kingdom of Tunis contains
about sixty thousand Jews, and whatever differ-
ence of opinion may exist as to their population
in the city, I do not believe that it contains more
than twenty thousand. These are divided into
Italian and Barbary Jews, who are distinguished
by their dress. The Barbary Jews wear a blue
frock without a collar or sleeves, loose linen
sleeves being substituted, with wide drawers of

18 MORDECAI M. NOAH

the same article, no stockings, excepting in winter,
and black slippers, a small black skull cap on their
head, which is shaved, and around which a blue
silk handkerchief is bound; they are permitted to
wear no colors. The Italian Jews dress like
Christian residents, with the addition of a haick,
or bournouse, thrown over their heads. They
inhabit a distinct quarter of the town, and are
governed by a person named by the Bey, who
hears and decides all disputes, and orders, if neces-
sary, corporal punishment to be inflicted; so that
it may be said they enjoy the privilege of being
governed by men of their own persuasion ; they
support their poor, the rich being compelled to
pay double price for articles of luxury, one half
of which goes to the poor ; their houses are low
and mean, which they are ever whitewashing and
cleansing. They have no system of education,
their children being taught the Hebrew language,
and the ceremonies of religion, which are the
same here, though more rigidly observed, as they
are in every other part of the world where Jews
reside. Polygamy, which is allowed by the
Mohammedan law, and not forbidden by the
Mosaic institutions, prevails in Barbary, but is
very rare. I heard of but one Jew in Tunis who
had two wives, his name was Alhaock, a very
rich and active old man. As it will readily be
imagined in a country which is not civilized, the
Jewish women, like the Turkish, are considered
as an inferior race. They are fat and awkward,
their dress consisting of a petticoat of silk of

MORDECAI M.NOAH 19

two colors, principally yellow and purple, around
which is thrown, in several folds, a thin gauze
wrapper; the head is covered with a colored silk
handkerchief; those who are single have their
hair platted in two or three rows, to the end of
which they suspend colored ribands ; they wear
no stockings but slippers, with silver cinctures
around the ankles; and the soles of their feet, their
hands, nails and eye-brows, tinged and colored of
a dark brown, from the juice of a herb called
Henna. When they walk they unloosen from
their neck a piece of black crape, with which they
cover their mouth and chin, leaving the upper
part of their face bare. As to their living and
domestic concerns, I can say nothing, never hav-
ing visited any of them.

"On the birth-night of General Washington, a
ball was given at the American Consulate; the
Jewish brokers called to solicit the favour of permis-
sion to bring their women, as they call them, to
see the company, which I granted; and one of the
rooms was nearly filled with the Jewish beauty,
and beau monde of Tunis. They were all dressed
magnificently, covered with jewels, gold brocades,
tissue, lama and gauze, arranged without any
taste, and crowded together without fancy ; their
feet bare, with embroidered slippers, and gold and
silver bracelets around their ankles. Their com-
plexions were fair, their eyes and teeth were good,
but their figures were corpulent and unwieldy,
which is considered a sign of beauty. The ladies
of Tunis who could speak Arabic, conversed with

20 MORDECAI M.NOAH

the Jewesses very courteously, and they appeared
modest and well behaved.

"The only opportunity which the females have
of seeing each other, for visiting is unknown in a
population so extensive, is at the burial ground;
this is outside of the walls, surrounded by no en-
closure, and open to animals of all kinds ; the
tombs are built of mortar and brick, they are flat,
and not more than six inches in elevation from
the ground : at the head of each tomb is a small
square piece of slate bedded in, on which is en-
graved the name of the deceased in Hebrew
characters.

"Every Friday afternoon the Hebrew women as-
semble with a small earthen jar, containing slack
lime and a brush, with which they clean and
whitewash the tombs of their family and friends.
It was in this abode of death that I accustomed
myself to study the character of these people. The
wife or mother arrived at the place, would deposit
her little jar and brush on the ground, and then
seek among the inscriptions for the name of one
who was still dear to her; having discovered it,
she touched the inscription with her hand, which
she carried to her lips and kissed; then, seating
herself on the tomb, she wept bitterly, consoling
herself in affliction by talking with the dead, and
recounting her domestic affairs, her happiness or
afflictions, and with a melancholy ignorance,
soliciting the kind interference and affectionate
protection of her dead kindred : having expended
some time in the luxury of grief, she would clean

MORDECAI M. NOAH 21

the tomb, and join her companions to learn "the
passing tidings of the times". These instances of
a feeling and benevolent heart, and of a pious
reverence, I frequently have witnessed : It is in
the crucible of adversity that the Jew, in weep-
ing over his own distresses, has taught himself to
weep over the distresses of others. It was here
that I saw the daughters of Israel, no longer on
Zion or in Sharon, no longer triumphant, free and
beloved, exhibit proofs of a heart which should
be prized above all things, which is more estim-
able than riches or precious ointment. But who
will seek the virtues of the Jews? Who credits
them for their charity, for their domestic fidelity,
for their national faith, and mutual protection? —
none. Their vices, which are like the vices of
other men, except that treason and murder are
unknown to them, have been the theme of re-
proach, of prejudice, and punishment." (
Noah was a man of character and courage. He
found his fellow consuls in Tunis to be a group
of men of the best intentions but sadly lacking in
the ability to contend with the cunning of the
Turk. The representatives of foreign countries
were forever matching their wits against the
shrewd Tunisians, but to little avail. Noah de-
termined that the only way in which a foreign rep-
resentative could receive justice in Tunis was
by compelling respect. Respect in that barbaric
land meant physical fear, and Noah lost no time
in demonstrating that he was a man of his word
and prepared to defend his rights by force. They

22 MORDECAI M. NOAH

could not mince words with him ; Noah became
the leader of the consuls. The flag of the United
States over the American Consulate was respected
as was the flag of no other nation, and the con-
sulate became a haven for persecuted and dis-
tressed foreigners. Before Noah left the United
States for his post, he had been apprised of the
fact that the Bey of Algiers looked upon American
citizens as floating speculators or traveling pigeons
whom he might pluck with impunity. He deter-
mined that such a state of things should not pre-
vail and that the wrongs which Americans had
suffered should not be repeated. An opportunity
to carry out this decision soon presented itself in
the shape of a foreign resident in Tunis.

A respected Italian merchant, by the name of
Curadi, came one day into the American Consulate
and informed Noah, that bills of exchange which
he (Curadi) had drawn for twenty thousand
piasters were returned protested, and that the
holders were about to seize upon him and all his
property, amounting to double that sum, to sacri-
fice his merchandise and ruin his prospects for-
ever; that his Consul, Mr. Nyssen, the Dutch
Agent, being so completely in the power of the
Bey, could not protect him; in this extremity he
had ventured to implore the benevolent protection
of the United States, to enable him to sell his
property with credit to himself, and pay his debts
honorably. Noah informed the Italian that it was
not customary to take the subjects of another
power under American protection, but if he en-

MORDECAI M. NOAH 23

tered the consulate and claimed the protection of
the flag, he should have it. Mr. Curadi then de-
clared that he would not leave the house, as he
considered it a sanctuary afforded to the unfortu-
nate, and respected by the Tunisian authorities.
Curadi had been traced to the Consulate and this
information had been delivered to the Bey. Pa-
tiently they awaited the approaching storm.

The next morning a Janizary appeared before
Consul Noah with the compliments of the Bey, at
the same time requesting Noah to give up the
Christian merchant "who was a debtor, endeavor-
ing to defraud his creditors". Noah desired the
Bey's envoy to convey his respects to his Highness,
and inform him that he was well aware that no
person was ever given up who had taken sanc-
tuary in the American Consulate. The following
day the Janizary returned with the same message,
to which the same answer was given. These visits
continued for several days with no better effect
and each day the message was augmented by an
additional insult.

Noah, during this time, had occasion to send
his servant, Abdallah, an honest old Persian, to
the palace for a permit to land a barrel of wine.
In a short time the messenger returned in great
trepidation. "Oh, my lord," said he, "such a
piece of business, such an unfortunate affair;" he
looked very much alarmed and spoke half French,
partly Arabic and Persian. It was with difficulty
that Noah learned what had happened. When
Abdallah was crossing the patio at the palace,

24 MORDECAI M.NOAH

it appeared, the Bey had perceived him and ad-
dressed him thus : "Abdallah, I have sent for
several days past to the Consul, with orders to
give up that Christian ; I had a good opinion of
the Consul, and did think him a good man, but he
knows he has no right to protect a debtor (Noah
knew to the contrary), and finding him indifferent
to my orders, you may now tell him, that to-
morrow I will send twenty Mamelukes into his
house and cut the Christian to pieces !"

Curadi heard the message, and trembled like an
aspen leaf; Noah lost all patience at this insult.
"The creditors of Mr. Curadi," Noah explains in
his "Travels", "could have settled honorably with
him at my house. I was security for his person,
but according to custom, they determined to seize
him and all his property, sell it for what they
pleased, and if they could bring him to debt, to
throw him in prison for the balance. They had
bribed the Bey to get him from my house, and his
Highness, flattering himself that I was ignorant
of my rights, ventured to experiment by threats.
I determined to resist them, we had arms and
ammunition, and I resolved to shut all the gates
and doors, hoist the flag, and beat ofif the Mame-
lukes if they should decide upon an attack. Curadi,
whose 'head's assurance was but frail', protested
against resistance, and solicited me to accompany
him to the Bey where he would state the nature
of his concerns. We did this the next morning.
I entered the hall of justice where the Bey was
seated surrounded by his ministers. After the

MORDECAI M.NOAH 25

customary salutation, he asked very calmly, what
my business was. • "Your Excellency is aware,"
said I, "that any person that takes refuge in the
house of a Consul is protected; this Christian en-
tered my house as a sanctuary, and you have en-
deavored to destroy my rights by attempting to
take him from my protection; failing in that, you
had recourse to threats, and yesterday you sent me
a message by Abdallah, stating, that if I did not
instantly give him up, you would send twenty
Mamelukes and cut him to pieces. Now, sir, that
the sanctuary of the American house may not be
violated, I have, at his request, brought him to
you, finding that you are about to deprive the
American flag of a privilege accorded to all
civilized powers, and which I assure you, we shall
not relinquish without a struggle." "I never said
such a thing," said the Bey, rising, "the slave is
mad — did I say so, Abdallah?" asked he, with a
furious look — the poor trembling dragoman replied ;
"No sir, I was mistaken." "There, Consul," said
the Bey, "how could you believe such a thing, such
a preposterous thing? Abdallah is an old fool!"
Noah pledged himself for Curadi's safe keeping.
The creditors looked disappointed, and Hassan
and Mustapha, the two sons of the Bey, who had
been the cause of this trouble, darted a furious
look at Noah, which he returned with perfect in-
difference. "Having confirmed the rights and
privileges due to the American Consulate," writes
Noah, "and defeated the intrigues of these rogues,
I returned to Tunis triumphant."

26 MORDECAI M.NOAH

This was the sort of diplomacy upon which
foreigners were dependent, but Noah was the only
consul who was fearless enough to use it, and it
was in this way that the business of the United
States in the Barbary States was successfully
transacted. The irony of the future that awaited
Noah is all the more poignant because of it.

It is sufficient to record that Noah performed
his duties faithfully and exceedingly well, the in-
cident related being an example of the methods
he employed to accomplish his work. The Consul
had very little respect for the rulers of the Bar-
bary States, — considering them barbarians and
assassins. He hoped that a time would come
when some determined civilized power would
wrest that fine portion of the globe from their
control. The government of the United States
suffered nothing, however, from these personal
prejudices. On the contrary, he strengthened its
position and its power; he was mild, polite,
generous, and conformed with the customs of the
place, but, withal, energetic and firm on points
connected with the integrity of his country. He
never yielded a point of honor and such a course
produced esteem and respect, and, above all, fear.

Noah adjusted the affair involving the enslaving
of the crew of the American vessel from Salem,
referred to above, in a manner advantageous to
the United States. He was confronted with a
difficult problem, requiring the exercise of dili-
gence and shrewdness, and he performed his mis-
sion very creditably; but he was compelled to

MORDECAI M. NOAH 27

expend a sum exceeding the amount allowed him
by his government. In return for this, he was
made the victim of a very unreasonable act, an
act which must forever remain a blot upon the
record of James Madison's administration as
President.

Noah's political opponents at home made use
of the incident of the freeing of the enslaved crew
to effect his recall. After all he had sacrificed in
the service, having more than once placed himself
in danger of losing his head for his country, and
after having accomplished so much where others
had failed entirely, Noah was rudely dismissed to
satisfy the clamoring of a clique of political vam-
pires. He received the notice from the hand of
his old schoolmate, Stephen Decatur, on board
the "Guerriere", when the American squadron
was in Mediterranean waters. Decatur had no
knowledge of the nature of the letter he had been
commissioned to deliver to Consul Noah. When
Noah broke the seal of the despatch, he read, to
his great surprise and mortification, the following:

"Dept. of State, April 25, 1815.
"Sir,—

At the time of your appointment, as Consul at
Tunis, it was not known that the RELIGION
which you profess would form any obstacle to the
exercise of your Consular functions. Recent infor-
mation, however, on which entire reliance may be
placed, proves that it would produce a very unfavor-

28 MORDECAI M.NOAH

able effect. IN CONSEQUENCE OF WHICH,
the President has deemed it expedient to revoke
your commission. On the receipt of this letter,
therefore, you will consider yourself no longer in
the public service. There are some circumstances,
too, connected with your accounts, which require a
more particular explanation, which, with that al-
ready given, are not approved by the President.

I am, very respectfully. Sir,

Your obedient servant,

(signed) James Monroe".

"(to) Mordecai M. Noah, Esquire, etc."

The receipt of this news shocked Noah inex-
pressibly. He records his feelings vehemently
in the account of his Travels. "To receive a
letter, which at once stripped me of office, of
rights, of honor, and credit, was sufficient to
astonish and dismay a person of stronger nerves,"
Noah writes. "What was to be done? I had not a
moment to determine. I cast my eye hastily on
Commodore Decatur. I was satisfied at a glance,
that he knew not the contents of the letter. It
was necessary that he should not, for had he
been made acquainted with the determination of the
government, it would have been his duty, and he
would have exercised it promptly, to have sent an
officer ashore, taken possession of the seals and
the archives of the Consulate, and I should have
returned to Tunis, stripped of power, an outcast,

MORDECAI M. NOAH 29

degraded and disgraced, a heavy debt against me ;
and from my Consulate, from the possession of
power, respected and feared, I should in all proba-
bility have gone into a dungeon, where I might
have perished, neglected and unpitied ; and for
what? for carrying into efifect the express orders of
the government! I had no time to curse such per-
fidy. I folded up the letter with apparent in-
difference and put it in my pocket."

When an opportunity presented itself Noah
once more read the letter. "I paused to reflect on
its contents," he continues. "I was at a loss to
account for its strange and unprecedented tenor;
my religion an object of hostility? I thought I
was a citizen of the United States, protected by
the constitution in my religious as well as my
civil rights. My religion was known to the
government at the time of my appointment, and
it constituted one of the prominent causes why I
was sent to Barbary. If then any "unfavorable"
events had been created by my religion, they
should have first ascertained, and not acting upon
a supposition, upon imaginary consequences, have
thus violated one of the most sacred and delicate
rights of a citizen. Admitting, then, that my
religion had produced an unfavorable effect, no
official notice should have been taken of it ; I
could have been recalled without placing on file
a letter thus hostile to the spirit and character of
our institutions. But my religion was not known
in Barbary; from the moment of my landing I
had been in full possession of my Consular func-

30 MORDECAI M.NOAH

tions, respected and feared by the government,
and enjoying the esteem and good will of every
resident. What injury could my religion create?
I lived like the other Consuls. The flag of the
United States was displayed on Sundays and
Christian holidays ; the Catholic priest, who came
to my house to sprinkle holy water and pray, was
received with deference, and fully allowed to per-
form his pious purpose ; the bare-footed Francis-
can, who came to beg, received alms in the name
of Jesus Christ; the Greek Bishop, who sent to
me a decorated branch of palm on Palm Sunday,
received, in return, a customary donation ; the
poor Christian slaves, when they wanted a favor,
came to me ; the Jews alone asked nothing from
me. Why then am I persecuted for my religion?

"Even admitting that my religion was an
obstacle, and there is no doubt that it was not,
are we prepared to yield up the admirable and
just institutions of our country at the shrine of
foreign bigotry and superstition? Are we pre-
pared to disfranchise one of our own citizens, to
gratify the intolerant views of the Bey of Tunis?
Has it come to this — that the noble character of
the most illustrious republic on earth, celebrated
for its justice and the sacred character of its
institutions, is to be sacrificed at the shrine of a
Barbary pirate? Have we then fallen so low?

"What would have been the consequence, had
the Bey known and objected to my religion? He
would have learned from me, in language too
plain to be misunderstood, that whomever the

MORDECAI M.NOAH 31

United States commissions as their representa-
tive, he must receive and respect, if his conduct be
proper; on that subject I could not have permitted
a word to be said. If such a principle is at-
tempted to be established, it will lay the founda-
tion for the most unhappy and dangerous dis-
putes, foreign nations will dictate to us what re-
ligion our officers at their courts should profess.
With all the reflection, and the most painful
anxiety, I could not account for this most extra-
ordinary and novel procedure. Some base in-
triguer, probably one who was ambitious of hold-
ing this wretched office, had been at some pains
to represent to the government, that my religion
would produce injurious effects, and the Presi-
dent (Madison), instead of closing the door on
such interdicted subjects, had listened and con-
curred ; and after having braved the perils of the
ocean, residing in a barbarous country, without
family or relatives, supporting the rights of the
nation, and hazarding my life from poison or the
stiletto, I find my own government, the only pro-
tector I can have, sacrificing my credit, violating
my rights, and insulting my feelings, and the
religious feelings of a whole nation. O ! shame,
shame ! ! The course which men of refined or
delicate feelings should have pursued, had there
been grounds for such a suspicion, was an obvious
one. The President should have instructed the
Secretary of State to have recalled me, and to
have said, that the causes should be made known
to me on my return ; such a letter as I received

32 MORDECAI M.NOAH

should never have been v^ritten, and, above all,
should never have been put on file. But it is not
true, that my religion either had, or would have,
produced injurious effects. The Bey of Algiers
had appointed Abraham Busnah, his minister at
the court of France. Nathan Bacri is Algerine
Consul at Marseilles, his brother holds the same
of^ce at Leghorn. The Treasurer, Interpreter,
and Commercial Agent of the Grand Seigneur at
Constantinople, are Jews."

Noah could not avoid reflecting on the status
of the Jews in the Barbary states, and he could
not fail to remember that the members of his race
were more acceptable to the Mussulmans than
were Christians. The government knew that
Noah had kept within the purview of his orders,
and that he would give a correct account of his
disbursements. There was no adequate excuse
for recall, either on religious grounds or that
there were some circumstances connected with
the Consul's accounts which required explanation.
No officer was ever recalled for want of mere
explanations in his accounts.

Noah felt that he should not make his country
look ridiculous in the eyes of Mussulmans by in-
forming them that the President had made objec-
tions to his religion. He stated to the Bey, there-
fore, that he was about to visit Italy on business.
The Bey appeared to be alarmed. "Why," said he,
"there is no dispute, I hope. Consul. We are on
good terms, are we not?" "Perfectly so," replied
Noah. The Minister of Marine said to the Bey

MORDECAI M.NOAH 33

that the United States was about to tender him
a higher post. The Bey shook Noah kindly and
affectionately by the hand. They had always
been on good terms personally, in spite of the
several unpleasant occasions of friction between
the two governments. *'The ministers all recip-
rocated their good wishes and kind remem-
brances," the Consul tells us, "and I left the palace
regretted, I believe, by all. So much for the
"unfavorable effects of my religion''.

If Noah's departure was in anywise regretted at
the palace, it is doubly certain that his fellow-
consuls were reluctant to bid him farewell.
Richard B. Jones, Consul of the United States at
Tripoli, wrote that Noah had displayed a zeal and
firmness unequalled in the defense of American
rights, and that he "had reasoned wisely, and
acted courageously". The following, a letter
from Andrew C. Gierlieu, the Danish Consul-
General, is further and convincing evidence on
that point: "Need I tell you, my highly esteemed
friend," we find his Danish Majesty's representa-
tive asking, "how sincerely I am afflicted at your
departure? My good Mr. Martino, too, will leave
me soon, and then I shall be alone, quite alone,
in this unhappy country. I have always esteemed
your character; and it is, and will be a consola-
tion to me, in this dreary place, where honor,
virtue, and character are the most shocking vices a
mortal can possess, to have gained such a friend,
I hope for life, and wherever we shall live, as
you, my most valued Mr. Noah. Be then as

34 MORDECAI M.NOAH

happy, my most sincerely esteemed and regretted
friend, as you certainly deserve, and as I wish
you from all my heart; and let us meet soon again
in a less unhappy country, where virtue, honor,
and manly open character, are no vices. We shall
always meet as friends, and we will dare to say
that we lived and acted like men of honor. Re-
member me as I always shall remember you. Be
a friend of my friends, as I shall always be of
yours, if they resemble you. Be a friend of my
country, as I always was of yours.

Your sincerely devoted friend,

Gierlieu."

"M. M. Noah, Esq., Consul of the U. S."

It is a fact that Noah's friends in the United
States remained true to him, that he was subse-
quently vindicated before the people, and that
his accounts were satisfactorily and properly ad-
justed. But the obnoxious letter of dismissal
could not be removed from the files of the State
Department. "Delays, red tape, and other causes
have prevented its removal even to this day,"
wrote one of his biographers some years ago. But
the letter is no longer on the official files of the
government, although this fact does not indicate
necessarily, that it was withdrawn. It merely indi-
cates that the letter cannot be found, or has been
lost, but it may be properly said that it has
mysteriously disappeared.

MORDECAI M.NOAH 35

To his activity as a Jewish liberator and
nationahst Noah's importance in Jewish history
is due. His vision was of Israel once more a
nation, his dream was of a Jewish State in the
Promised Land, leading in commerce and culture,
and foremost in the arts and sciences. His
hope was the hope of the Zionist to-day, his
mistake in the selection of the means necessary to
accomplish his heart's longings. He believed
that the salvation of the Jewish people would
come mainly through the efforts of their own
neighbors, he pleaded for their help, begged them
to succor Israel, not realizing that the working
out of their national aspirations is left in their
own hands, that they must drink waters from
their own wells, grateful that those in whose
midst they sojourn, for the present, at least, re-
main indifferent. He called for aid from the
citizens of a new land, properly engrossed in
their own labors and in the shaping of their own
destinies, appealing to them in the name of their
pilgrim ancestors, forgetting in the heat of his
eloquence the bigotry of the Pilgrim fathers and
the scientific snobbishness of their sons.

Noah was so intensely concerned with the ne-
cessity of the renationalization of the scattered
and persecuted Hebrews, that, like a drowning
man, he clutched for whatever straw floated near.
And like a drowning man, his sincerity cannot
be questioned, for life, wealth, and the allurements
of civic power were naught to him compared with
the hopes he cherished for the future of Jewry.

36 MORDECAI M.NOAH

He advanced projects for the establishment of
a Jewish State on three different occasions. The
best known scheme was to open, in 1825, on
Grand Island, near Buffalo, N. Y., a refuge for
Jews. This attempt was eminently unsuccessful,
causing a great sensation at the time, amusing to
many, and markedly unfortunate, from the finan-
cial point of view, for certain capitalists who
aided him. A chronicler of Erie County, N. Y., in
which Grand Island, the proposed asylum for the
persecuted was to be located, tells us "that it was
in the years 1824-1825 that occurred the extra-
ordinary and amusing experience of Mordecai M.
Noah and his co-partners in an attempt to found
a great city on Grand Island, to be peopled mainly
by the Jews, of which race Noah was a prominent
representative. The whole affair resulted in an
early and ludicrous failure."

The most accurate, complete, and interesting
account of the plan of Mordecai Manuel Noah to
found a Jewish State, is given in a paper read by
the Hon. Lewis F. Allen, in 1866, before the
Buffalo Historical Society. Because of the
historical value of Mr. Allen's report, it is re-
printed here almost in its entirety:

"In the year 1825 an eventful history was about
to open on the Niagara frontier. Those members
of our Society who then lived there, in the relation
of their reminiscences of that period, have been
prone to mark it as an eventful year in three thrill-
ing incidents relating to the history of Buffalo,
viz ; the visit of General Lafayette, the completion

MORDECAI M.NOAH ^7

and opening of the Erie Canal, and the hanging
of the three Thayers. There might have been
added to it another memorable occurrence, not
only to Buffalo, but to the Niagara frontier. Fol-
lowing the survey of Grand Island into farm
lots for settlement, of which the State authorities
gave notice in the public newspapers, an idea
occurred to the late Mordecai Manuel Noah, a
distinguished Israelite of the City of New York,
then editor of a prominent political journal called
"The National Advocate", that Grand Island
would make a suitable asylum for the Jews of all
nations, whereon they could establish a great city
and become emancipated from the oppression
bearing so heavily upon them in foreign countries.

"To understand this matter thoroughly, it is
necessary to go somewhat into particulars. I
knew Major Noah well. Physically, he was a
man of large, muscular frame, rotund person, a
benignant face and a most portly bearing. Al-
though a native of the United States, the linea-
ments of his race were impressed upon his feat-
ures with unmistakable character, and if the blood
of the elder Patriarchs or David or Solomon
flowed not in his veins, then both chronology and
genealogy must be at fault.

"He was a Jew, thorough and accomplished. His
manners were genial, his heart kind and his
generous sympathies embraced all Israel, even to
the end of the earth. He was learned, too, not
only in the Jewish and civil law, but in the ways
of the world at large, and particularly in the faith

38 MORDECAI M.NOAH

r and politics of "Saint Tammany" and "The
\ ; Bucktail Party" of the State, of which his news-
paper was the organ and chief expounder in the
City of New York. He was a Counsellor at Law
in our Courts; had been Consul General for the
United States at the Kingdom of Tunis on the
coast of Barbary — at the time he held it, a most
responsible trust.

"Although a visionary — as some would call
him — and an enthusiast in his enterprises, he had
won many friends among the Gentiles, who had
adopted him into their political associations. He
had warm attachments and few hates, and if the
sharpness of his political attacks, created for the
time, a personal rancor in the breasts of his
opponents, its genial, frank, childlike ingenuous-
ness healed it all at the first opportunity. He
was a pundit in Hebrew law, traditions and
customs. "To the manner born", he was loyal to
his religion ; and no argument or sophistry could
swerve him from his fidelity, or uproot his here-
^( ditary faith. My friend and neighbor, Wm. A.
Bird, Esq., has related to me the following
anecdote :

"Many years ago, when his mother, the late
Mrs. Eunice Porter Bird Pawling, resided at Troy,
New York, a society was formed, auxiliary to one
organized in the City of New York, for the pur-
pose of christianizing the Jews in all parts of the
world. Mrs. Pawling, an energetic doer of good
works, in the then infant city of her residence,
was applied to for her co-operation in that novel

MORDECAI M. NOAH 39

benefaction. She had her own doubts, both of
its utility and success, of which results have
proved the correctness. But, determined to act
understanding^, she wrote a letter to Major
Noah, asking his views on so important a subject.
He replied in a letter, elaborately setting forth the
principles, the faith, and the policy of the Jewish
people, their ancient, hereditary traditions, their
venerable history, their hope of a coming Messiah,
and concluded by expressing the probability that
the modern Gentiles would sooner be converted
to the Jewish faith, than that the Jews would be
converted to theirs.

"Major Noah — as I observed, a visionary, some-
what, and an enthusiast altogether — made two
grand mistakes in his plan. In the first place, he
had no power or authority over his people, and,
in the next, he was utterly mistaken in their
aptitude for the new calling he proposed them to
fulfill. But he went on. He induced his friend,
the late Samuel Leggett, of New York, to make
a purchase of twenty-five hundred and fifty-five
acres, partly at the head of Grand Island, and
partly at its center, opposite Tonawanda, at the
entrance of the Erie Canal into the Niagara river.
Either or both these localities were favorable for
building a city.

''These two tracts he thought sufficient for a
settlement of his Jewish brethren; which, if suc-
cessful, would result in all the lands of the island
falling into their hands. Nor on a fairly, suppo-
sitious ground — presuming the Jews, in business

40 MORDECAI M.NOAH

affairs, to be like the Gentiles — were his theories
so much mistaken. The canal, opening a new
avenue to the great western world, from Lake
Erie to the 'ultima-thule' of civilization at that
day, was about to be completed. The Lakes had
no extensive commerce. Capital was unknown as
a commercial power in Western New York. The
Jews had untold wealth, ready to be converted
into active and profitable investment. Tonawanda,
in common with Black Rock and Buffalo, with a
perfect and capacious natural harbor, was one of
the western termini of the Erie Canal, and at
the foot of the commerce of the western lakes.
With sufficient steam power every sail craft and
steamboat on the lakes could reach Grand Island
and Tonawanda, discharge into, and take on, their
cargoes from canal boats, and by their ample
means thus command the western trade. Buffalo
and Black Rock, although up to that time the
chief recipients of the lake commerce, lacking
moneyed capital, would not be able to compete
with the energy and abundant resources of the
proposed commercial cities to be established on
Grand Island and Tonawanda, and they must
yield to the rivalry of the Jews. Such was Major
Noah's theory and such his plans. Mr. Leggett's
co-operation, with abundant means for the land
purchase, he had already secured. Through the
columns of his own widely circulating "National
Advocate," he promulgated his plan, and by the
time the sale of the Grand Island lots was to be
made at the State Land Office in Albany, other

MORDECAI M.NOAH 41

parties of capitalists had concluded to take a ven-
ture in the speculation.

"The sale took place. Mr. Leggett purchased
one thousand and twenty acres at the head of the
Island, at the cost of seven thousand, two hundred
dollars, and fifteen hundred and thirty-five acres
along the river in a compact body above, opposite,
and below Tonawanda, at the price of nine
thousand, seven hundred and eighty-five dollars ;
being about fifty per cent above the average of
what the whole body of land sold at per acre — that
is to say : The whole seventeen thousand, three
hundred and eighty-one acres sold for seventy-six
thousand, two hundred and thirty dollars, being
an average, including Mr. Leggett's purchase, of
about four dollars and thirty-eight cents per
acre.

"Next to Leggett, Messrs. John B. Yates and
Archibald Mclntyre, then proprietors, by purchase
from the State, of the vast system of lotteries,
embracing those for the benefit of Union College,
and other eleemosynary purposes — gambling in
lotteries for the benefit of colleges and churches
was thought to be a moral instrument in those
days — purchased through other parties a large
amount of the land, and Peter Smith, of Peters-
borough (living, however, at Schenectady) — and
the most extensive land speculator in the State,
father of the present Gerrit Smith — took a large
share of the remainder. To sum up, briefly, the
result of the sale of Grand Island lands, Leggett
and Yates and Mclntyre complied with the stipu-

42 MORDECAI M. NOAH

lated terms of the sale, paid over to the State their
one-eighth of the purchase money, and gave their
bonds for the remainder, while Smith — wary in
land-purchasing practice when the State of New
York was the seller — did no such thing. He paid
his one-eighth of the purchase money down, as
did the others, but neglected to give his bond for
payment of the balance. The consequence was,
when the "eclaf of Noah's Ararat subsided, and
his scheme proved a failure, the land went down
in value, and Smith forfeited his first payment,
and the lots fell back to the State. But on a
lower re-appraisal by the State some years after-
wards. Smith again bought at less than one half
the price at which he originally purchased, made
his one-eighth payment again, and gave his bond
as required ; thus pocketing by his future sale of
the property, over twenty thousand dollars in the
transaction.

"All this, however, aside from Mr. Leggett's
purchase for the benefit of Major Noah, has noth-
ing to do with our main history, and is only given
as an occurrence of the times.

"Major Noah, now secure in the possession of a
nucleus for his coveted "City of Refuge for the
Jews", addressed himself to its foundation and
dedication. He had heralded his intentions
through the columns of his "NATIONAL
ADVOCATE." His contemporaries of the press
ridiculed his scheme and predicted its failure;
yet true to his original purpose, he determined to
carry it through. Wise Jews around him shook

MORDECAI M. NOAH 43

their^Jieads in doubt of his ability to effect his
plans, and withheld from him their support. But,
nothing daunted, he ventured it unaided, and al-
most alone. By the aid of an indomitable friend,
and equally enthusiastic co-laborer, Mr. A. B.
Seixas, of New York, he made due preparations,
and late in the month of August, in the year
1825, with robes of office and insignia of rank
securely packed, they left the city of New York
for Buffalo. He was a stranger in our then little
village of twenty-five hundred people, and could
rely for countenance and aid only on his old
friend, the late Isaac S. Smith, then residing here,
whom he had known abroad while in his consulate
at Tunis. In Mr. Smith, however, he found a
ready assistant in his plans. Major Noah, with
his friend Seixas, arrived in Buffalo in the last
days of August. He had got prepared a stone,
which was to be the "chief of the corner", with
proper inscription, and of ample dimensions for
the occasion. This stone was obtained from the
Cleveland, Ohio, sandstone quarries. The inscrip-
tion, written by Major Noah, was cut by the late
Seth Chapin, of Buffalo.

"As on examination when arriving here, he
could not well get to Grand Island to locate and
establish his city, it was concluded to lay the
cornerstone in the Episcopal church of the village,
then under the rectorship of Rev. Addison Searle.
As this strange and remarkable proceeding, and
the novel act of laying a foundation for a Jewish
city, with its imposing rites and formula, its regal

44 MORDECAI M. NOAH

pomp and Jewish ceremony in a Christian Epis-
copal church, with the aid of its authorized rector,
may strike the present generation with surprise,
a word or two may be said of the transaction.

"The Rev. Mr. Searle was, at that time, the
officiating clergyman in the little church of St.
Paul's, in the village of Buffalo, and had been
placed there as a missionary by the late wise and
excellent Bishop Hobart. He held a government
commission as chaplain of the United States, and
had been granted some years furlough from active
duty. He had been on foreign cruises, — had
coasted the Mediterranean and spent months in
the chief cities of its classic shores, and visited the
beautiful Greek Island of Scios, a few weeks after
the burning of its towns and the massacre of
its people by the Turks, in 1822. He was an ac-
complished and genial man, of commanding per-
son, and portly mien; his manners were bland
and his address courtly. Whether he had made
the acquaintance of Major Noah abroad or in New
York, or whether he first met him on this oc-
casion at Buffalo, I know not, but their inter-
course here was cordial and friendly.

"On the second day of September, 1825, the im-
posing ceremony of laying the cornerstone of the
city of Ararat, to be built on Grand Island, took
place, and as a full account of the doings of the
day, written by Major Noah himself, was pub-
lished at the time in the "Buffalo Patriot Extra",
I take the liberty of repeating them from that
paper:

MORDECAI M. NOAH 45

"It was known, at the sale of that beautiful and
valuable tract called Grand Island, a few miles
below this port (Buffalo), in the Niagara river,
that it was purchased, in part, by the friends of
Major Noah, of New York, avowedly to offer it
as an asylum for his brethren of the Jewish per-
suasion, who, in the other parts of the world, are
much oppressed, and it was likewise known that
it was intended to erect upon the island a city
called Ararat. We are gratified to perceive, by
the documents in this day's "Extra" that, coupled
with this colonization is a Declaration of Inde-
pendence and the revival of the Jewish govern-
ment under the protection of the United States,
after the dispersion of that ancient and wealthy
people for nearly two thousand years — and the
appointment of Mr. Noah as first judge. It was
intended, pursuant to the public notice, to cele-
brate the event on the island, and a flagstaff was
erected for the Grand Standard of Israel, and
other arrangements made; but it was discovered
that a sufficient number of boats could not be pro-
cured in time to convey all those to the island who
were desirous of witnessing the ceremony, and
the celebration took place this day in the village,
which was both interesting and impressive. At
dawn of day, a salute was fired in front of the
Court House, and from the terrace facing the
lake.

"At ten o'clock the masonic and military compa-
nies assembled in front of the Lodge, and at eleven,
the line of procession was formed as follows :

46 MORDECAI M.NOAH

ORDER OF PROCESSION

Grand Marshall, Col. Potter, on horseback.

MUSIC

MILITARY

CITIZENS

CIVIL OFFICERS

STATE OFFICERS IN UNIFORM

PRESIDENT AND TRUSTEES OF THE

CORPORATION

TYLER

STEWARDS

ENTERED APPRENTICES

FELLOW CRAFTS

MASTER MASONS

SENIOR AND JUNIOR DEACONS

SECRETARY AND TREASURER

SENIOR AND JUNIOR WARDENS

MASTER OF LODGES

PAST MASTERS

REV. CLERGY

STEWARDS, with corn, wine and oil

PRINCIPAL ARCHITECT

with square level, and plumb.

Bible.

GLOBE GLOBE

Square and Compass, borne by a Master Mason.

THE JUDGE OF ISRAEL

In black, wearing the judicial robes of crimson silk,

trimmed with ermine, and a richly embossed golden

medal suspended from the neck.

A MASTER MASON

ROYAL ARCH MASONS

KNIGHTS TEMPLAR

\

MC RDECAI M. NOAH 47

"On arriving at the church door, the troops
opened to the right and left and the procession
entered the aisles, the band playing the Grand
March from Judas Maccabeus. The full-toned
organ commenced its swelling notes, performing
the Jubilate. On the communion table lay the
corner stone, with the following inscription (the
Hebrew is from Deut., vi. 4) :

ARARAT
A CITY OF REFUGE FOR THE JEWS

Founded by Mordecai Manuel Noah, in the month

of Tizri, September 1825, in the 50th year of

American Independence.

"On the stone lay the silver cups with wine,
corn and oil.

"The ceremonies commenced by the Morning
Service, read emphatically by the Rev. Mr. Searle
of the Episcopal church. "Before Jehovah's Awful
Throne" was sung by the choir to the tune of
Old Hundred — Morning Prayer — First lesson from
Jeremiah, — Second lesson, Zeph. iiiS — Psalms for
the occasion xcvii, xcviii, xcix, Ps. cxxvii in verse
— Ante Communion Service — Psalm in Hebrew —
Benediction.

"Mr. Noah arose and pronounced a discourse, or
rather delivered a speech, announcing the re-
organization of the Jewish government, and going
through a detail of many points of intense interest,
to which a crowded auditory listened with pro-
found attention.

48 MORDECAI M. NO. H

"At the conclusion of the ceremonies the pro-
cession returned to the Lodge, and the Masonic
brethren and the military repaired to the Eagle
Tavern and partook of refreshments. The church
was filled with ladies, and the whole ceremony
was impressive and unique. A grand salute of
twenty-four guns was fired by the artillery, and
the band played a number of patriotic airs.

"We learn that a vast concourse assembled at
Tonawanda, expecting that the ceremonies would
be at Grand Island. Many of them came up in
carriages in time to hear the Inaugural speech.
The following is the Proclamation, which will be
read with great attention and interest. A finer
day and more general satisfaction has not been
known on any similar occasion.

PROCLAMATION TO THE JEWS

^'Whereas, it has pleased Almighty God to
manifest to his chosen people the approach of
that period when, in fulfillment of the promises
made to the race of Jacob, and as a reward for
their pious constancy and triumphant fidelity,
they are to be gathered from the four quarters of
the globe, and to resume their rank and character
among the governments of the earth ;

''And Whereas, the peace which now prevails
among civilized nations, the progress of learning
throughout the world, and the general spirit of
liberality and toleration which exists together
with other changes favorable to light and to
liberty, mark in an especial manner the approach

MORDECAI M. NOAH 49

of that time, when ''peace on earth good will to
man" are to prevail with a benign and extended
influence, and the ancient people of God, the
first to proclaim his unity and omnipotence, are to
be restored to their inheritance, and enjoy the
rights of a sovereign independent people;

''Therefore, I, Mordecai Manuel Noah, citizen
of the United States of America, late Consul of
said States to the City and Kingdom of Tunis,
High Sheriff of New York, Counsellor at Law,
and by the grace of God, Governor and Judge of
Israel, have issued this my Proclamation, an-
nouncing to the Jews throughout the Avorld, that
an asylum is prepared and hereby offered to them,
where they can enjoy that peace, comfort and
happiness which have been denied them through
the intolerance and misgovernment of former
ages ; an asylum in a free and powerful country
remarkable for its vast resources, the richness of
its soil, and the salubrity of its climate; where
industry is encouraged, education promoted, and
good faith rewarded, 'a land of milk and honey',
where Israel may repose in peace, under his
"vine and fig-tree", and where our people may so
familiarize themselves with the science of govern-
ment and the lights of learning and civilization,
as may qualify them for that great and final res-
toration to their ancient heritage, which the
times so powerfully indicate.

"The asylum referred to is in the State of
New York, the greatest State in the American
confederacy. New York contains forty-three

50 MORDECAI M. NOAH

thousand, two hundred and fourteen square miles,
divided into fifty-five counties, and having six
thousand and eighty-seven post towns and cities,
containing one million, five hundred thousand in-
habitants, together with six million acres of cul-
tivated land, improvements in agriculture and
manufactures, in trade and commerce, which in-
clude a valuation of three hundred millions of
dollars of taxable property ; one hundred and
fifty thousand militia, armed and equipped ; a con-
stitution founded upon an equality of rights, hav-
ing no test-oaths, and recognizing no religious
distinctions, and seven thousand free schools and
colleges, affording the blessings of education to
four hundred thousand children. Such is the
great and increasing State to which the emigra-
tion of the Jews is directed.

"The desired spot in the State of New York,
to which I hereby invite my beloved people
throughout the world, in common with those of
every religious denomination, is called Grand
Island, and on which I shall lay the foundation
of a City of Refuge, to be called Ararat.

"Grand Island in the Niagara river is bounded
by Ontario on the north, and Erie on the south,
and within a few miles of each of these great
commercial lakes. The island is nearly twelve
miles in length, and varying from three to seven
miles in breadth, and contains upwards of seven-
teen thousand acres of remarkably rich and fertile
land. Lake Erie is about two hundred and
seventy miles in length, and borders on the States

MORDECAI M.NOAH 51

of New York, Pennsylvania and Ohio ; and west-
wardly, by the possessions of our friends and
neighbors, the British subjects of Upper Canada.
This splendid lake unites itself by means of
navigable rivers, with lakes St. Clair, Huron,
Michigan and Superior, embracing a lake shore
of nearly three thousand miles; and by short
canals those vast sheets of water will be con-
nected with the Illinois and Mississippi rivers,
thereby establishing a great and valuable internal
trade to New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico.
Lake Ontario, on the north, is one hundred and
ninety miles in length, and empties into the St.
Lawrence, which, passing through the Province
of Lower Canada, carries the commerce of Quebec
and Montreal to the Atlantic Ocean.

"Thus fortified to the right and left by the
extensive commercial resources of the Great Lakes
and their tributary streams, within four miles of
the subHme Falls of Niagara, affording the great-
est water-power in the world for manufacturing
purposes, — directly opposite the mouth of the
Grand Island Canal of three hundred and sixty
miles inland navigation to the Hudson river and
city of New York, — having the fur trade of Upper
Canada to the west, and also of the great terri-
tories towards the Rocky Mountains and the
Pacific Ocean; likewise the trade of the Western
States of America, — Grand Island may be con-
sidered as surrounded by every commercial,
manufacturing and agricultural advantage, and
from its location is pre-eminently calculated to

52 MORDECAI M.NOAH

become, in time, the greatest trading and com-
mercial depot in the new and better world. To
men of worth and industry it has every substan-
tial attraction ; the capitalist will be enabled to
enjoy his resources with undoubted profit, and the
merchant cannot fail to reap the reward of enter-
prise in a great and growing republic; but to the
industrious mechanic, manufacturer and agricul-
turist it holds forth great and improving advan-
tages.

''Deprived, as our people have been for centu-
ries of a right in the soil, they will learn, with
peculiar satisfaction, that here they can till the
soil, reap the harvest, and raise the flocks which
are unquestionably their own ; and, in the full and
unmolested enjoyment of their religious rights,
and of every civil immunity, together with peace
and plenty, they can lift up their voice in grati-
tude to Him who sustained our fathers in the
wilderness, and brought us in triumph out of the
land of Egypt; who assigned to us the safe-keep-
ing of his oracles, who proclaimed us his people,
and who has ever walked before us like a "Cloud
by day and a pillar of fire by night".

"In His name do I revive, renew and re-
establish the government of the Jewish Nation,
under the auspices and protection of the consti-
tution and laws of the United States of America;
confirming and perpetuating all our rights and
privileges, — our name, our rank, and our power
among the nations of the earth, — as they existed
and were recognized under the government of the

MORDECAI M.NOAH 53

Judges. And I hereby enjoin it upon all our
pious and venerable Rabbis, our Presidents and
Elders of Synagogues, Chiefs of Colleges and
brethren in authority throughout the world, to
circulate and make known this, my Proclamation,
and give it full publicity, credence and effect.

"It is my will that a census of the Jews |
throughout the world be taken, and returns of
persons, together with their age and occupations {
to be registered in the archives of the Synagogues
where they are accustomed to worship, designat-
ing such, in particular, as have been and are dis-
tinguished in the useful arts, in science or in
knowledge.

"Those of our people who, from age, local at-
tachment, or from any other cause, prefer remain-
ing in the several parts of the world which they
now respectively inhabit, and who are treated
with liberality by the public authorities, are per-
mitted to do so, and are specially recommended
to be faithful to the governments which protect
them. It is, however, expected that they will aid
and encourage the emigration of the young and
enterprising, and endeavor to send to this country
such as will add to our national strength and
character, by their industry, honor and patriot-
ism.

"Those Jews who are in the military employ-
ment of the diflferent sovereigns of Europe are
enjoined to keep in their ranks until further
orders, and conduct themselves with bravery and
fidelity.

54 MORDECAI M. NOAH

"1 command that a strict neutrality be ob-
served in the pending wars between the Greeks
and the Turks, enjoined by considerations of
safety towards a numerous population of Jews
now under the oppressive dominion of the Otto-
man Porte.

"The annual gifts which, for many centuries,
have been afforded to our pious brethren in our
holy City of Jerusalem (to which may God
speedily restore us) are to continue with unabated
liberality; our seminaries of learning and institu-
tions of charity in every part of the world are to
be increased, in order that wisdom and virtue may
permanently prevail among the chosen people.

*T abolish forever polygamy among the Jews,
which, without religious warrant, still exists in
Asia, and Africa. I shall prohibit marriages or
giving Kedushin without both parties are of a
suitable age, and can read and write the language
of the country which they respectively inhabit,
and which I trust will ensure for their offspring
the blessings of education and probably, the lights
of science.

"Prayers shall forever be said in the Hebrew
language, but it is recommended that occasional
discourses on the principles of the Jewish faith
and the doctrines of morality generally, be de-
livered in the language of the country; together
with such reforms, which, without departing from
the ancient faith, may add greater solemnity to
our worship.

"The Caraite and Samaritan Jews, together with

MORDECAI M.NOAH 55

the black Jews of India and Africa, and likewise \
those in Cochin, China and the sect on the coast
of Malabar, are entitled to an equality of rights
and religious privileges, as are all who may par-
take of the great covenant and obey and respect
the Mosaical laws.

"The Indians of the American continent, in
their admitted Asiatic origin — in their worship
of God, — in their dialect and language, — in their
sacrifices, marriages, divorces, burials, fastings,
purifications, punishments, cities of refuge, divi-
sions of tribes, — in their High Priests, — in their
wars and in their victories, being in all probabili-
ty, the descendants of the lost tribes of Israel,
which were carried captive by the King of Assyria,
measures will be adopted to make them sensible
of their condition and finally re-unite them with
their brethren, the chosen people. .

"A capitation tax of three shekels in silver, per '
annum, or one Spanish dollar, is hereby levied
upon each Jew throughout the world, to be col-
lected by the Treasurer of the diflferent congre-
gations for the purpose of defraying the various
expenses of re-organizing the government, of aid-
ing emigrants in the purchase of agricultural im-
plements, providing for their immediate wants
and comforts, and assisting their families in mak-
ing their first settlements, together with such
free-will offerings as may be generally made in
the furtherance of the laudable objects connected
with the restoration of the people and the glory
of the Jewish nation. A judge of Israel shall be

56 MORDECAI M. XOAH

chosen once in every four years by the Consistory
at Paris, at which time proxies from every congre-
gation shall be received.

"I do hereby name as Commissioners, the most
learned and pious Abraham de Cologna, Knight
of the Iron Crown of Lombardy, Grand Rabbi of
the Jews and President of the Consistory at Paris ;
likewise the Grand Rabbi Andrade of Bordeaux ;
and also our learned and esteemed Grand Rabbis
of the German and Portugal Jews, in London,
Rabbis Herschell and Meldola; together with the
Honorable Aaron Nunez Cordoza, of Gibraltar,
Abraham Busnac, of Leghorn, Benjamin Gradis
of Bordeaux : Dr. E. Gans and Professor Zunz of
Berlin, and Dr. Leo Woolf of Hamburg to aid
and assist in carrying into effect the provisions
of this my Proclamation, with powers to appoint
the necessar}- agents in the several parts of the
world, and to establish emigration societies, in
order that the Jews may be concentrated and
capacitated to act as a distinct body, having at the
head of each kingdom or republic such presiding
officers as I shall upon their recommendation ap-
point. Instructions to these, my commissioners,
shall be forthwith transmitted ; and a more en-
larged and general view of plan, motives and ob-
jects will be detailed in the address to the nation.
The Consistory at Paris is hereby authorized and
empowered to name three discreet persons of com-
petent abilities, to visit the United States, and
make such reports to the nation as the actual con-
dition of this country shall warrant.

MORDECAI M. NOAH 57

*'I do appoint Roshhodesh Adar, February 7th,
1826, to be observed with suitable demonstrations
as a day of Thanksgiving to the Lord God of
Israel for the manifold blessings and signal pro-
tection which he has deigned to extend to his
people, and in order, that, on that great occasion
our prayers may be ottered for the continuance
of His divine mercy and the fulfillment of all the
promises and pledges made to the race of Jacob.

'*I recommend peace and union among us;
charity and good-will to all ; toleration and
liberality to our brethren of every religious de-
nomination, enjoined by the mild and just pre-
cepts of our holy religion ; honor and good faith in
the fulfillment of all our contracts, together w^ith
temperance, economy, and industry in our habits.

*'I humbly entreat to be remembered in your
prayers ; and lastly and most earnestly I do enjoin
you to 'keep the charge of the Holy God', to walk
His ways, to keep His statutes, and His com-
mandments, and His judgments, and His testi-
monies, as it is written in the laws of Moses —
"That thou mayest prosper in all thou doest, and
whithersoever thou turnest thyself."

"Given at Bufitalo, in the State of New York,
this second day Tishri, in the year of the world
5586, corresponding with the fifteenth day of
September, 1825, and in the fiftieth year of
American independence.

"By the Judge,
"A. B. Seixas, Secretary^ Pro tem."

58 MORDECAI M. NOAH

"The day succeeding the ceremonies — the "corn
and wine and oil'', and "the Proclamation" — the
newly constituted Judge in Israel issued another
address (also printed in the Buffalo Patriot
Extra), setting forth the design of the new city,
and invoking the aid and countenance of his
brethren abroad in contributing of their substance
and influence to its uprising and population.
Thus, with due benediction, ended the ceremonial
— the first of its kind known in this country — of
the corner-stone of an anticipated Hebrew, or
any other city, being laid on the communion table
of a Christian church!

"The ceremonial, with its procession, "Masonic
and Military", its pomp and magnificence, passed
away. Major Noah, a day or two afterwards, de-
parted for his home in New York; the "corner-
stone" was taken from the audience-chamber of
the church, and deposited against its rear wall,
outside; and the great prospective City of Ararat,
with its splendid predictions and promises,
vanished, "and, like an unsubstantial pageant
/faded — left not a rock behind".
I "This was in fact, the whole affair. The for-
eign Rabbis denounced Noah and his entire
scheme. He had levied taxes of sundry "shekels'
on all the Jewish tribes of the world, assumed
supreme jurisdiction over their emigration to
America, and sought to control their destinies
afterwards. But, having no confidence in his
plans or financial management, the American Jews
even repudiated his proceedings ; and, after a

MORDECAI M. NOAH 59

storm of ridicule heaped on his presumptious
head, the whole thing- died away, and passed
among the other thousand-and-one absurdities of
other character which had preceded it. Noah,
however, with his ever-ready wit and newspaper
at hand, replied to all the jeers and flings in good
humor, and lost none of the prestige of his char-
acter and position, either politically or morally.
He was known to be eccentric in many things,
and this was put down as the climax of his eccen-
tricities. Poor in money always, he had no in-
fluence in financial circles, yet he was a "power"
in the State. Some years after his Ararat affair,
he held the oflice of Judge in one of the criminal
city courts of New York, with decided acceptance
to the public — married a wealthy Jewess of high
respectability — reared a family, and died some ten
or a dozen years ago in New York, lamented by
those who knew him, as a kind and generous
man.

"The subsequent history of the corner-stone
which we have described, is imperfectly known.
It is generally supposed, by those who have heard
of the matter at all, that Ararat was actually
founded on Grand Island, opposite Tonawanda;
and some thirty or forty years ago, accounts were
frequently published by tourists and in the news-
papers, that the stone aforesaid stood, encased in
a monument, on the actual spot selected by Noah
for the building of his city. That the stone did
so stand in a brick monument at Grand Island,
opposite Tonawanda, but not on the site of any

60 MORDECAI M. NOAH

city, past or present, is a fact, and it came about
in this wise :

"In the summer of the year 1827, having be-
come a resident of Buffalo in April of that year, I
saw the stone leaning against the rear under-
pinning of the little church of St. Paul, next to
Pearl Street. It had stood there from the time it
was removed at its consecration in 1825. When
it was removed from the wall of the church I can-
not say. In the year 1833, I made a purchase of
Messrs. Samuel Leggett, of New York, Yates and
Mclntyre, of Albany, and Peter Smith, of
Schenectady, and a few other parties, on behalf
of a company of gentlemen in Boston, Massachu-
setts, with whom I had an interest, of the lands
they held on Grand Island, amounting in all to
about sixteen thousand acres. The average price
paid for it was a little more than five dollars per
acre. The principal object of the purchase was
the valuable white-oak ship-timber abounding
there, which it was intended to cut and convey
to the Boston ship-yards.

"A clearing and settlement was made on the
island, opposite Tonawanda. Several houses were
built, and a steam-mill for sawing the timber
into planks, erected. A few months after the pur-
chase, the year 1834, being one day at the house of
General Peter B. Porter, at Black Rock, I saw
Major Noah's corner-stone lying in his lawn near
the river-front of his dwelling. In answer to my
question, how it came there, he said, that being in
New York some few years previous, and meet-

MORDECAI M. NOAH 61

ing Major Noah, with whom he had been long
acquainted, he told him that his corner-stone of
Ararat was standing behind St. Paul's church in
Buffalo. Noah then requested him to take care
of it, and place it in some secure spot, as he
wished to have it preserved where it would not
excite comment, for he had heard quite enough
about it. In compliance with the request. General
Porter took the stone, and placed it in his own
grounds. Taking a fancy to the stone, I asked
General Porter to give it to me, assuring him that
I would take it to Grand Island, and give it an
honorable position. He complied with my re-
quest, and I removed it to the new settlement
on the island. A decent architectural structure
of brick was erected, standing about fourteen feet
high and six feet square. A niche was made in
the front, facing the river, in which the stone
was placed, and a comely roof as a top finish, put
over it. A steam passenger-boat was running for
several years daily, through the summer, between
Buffalo and the Falls of Niagara, touching each
way at Whitehaven, the little Grand Island settle-
ment, and many people went to shore to see the
monument, which told a false history. Artists
and tourists sketched the homely little structure,
and copied the inscription on the stone, and the
next year a "Guide Book to the Falls of Niagara"
issued in Buffalo, by a young man named Ferris,
I believe, had the monument, with the "Corner-
stone of the Jewish City of Ararat" well engraved
and described, conspicuous in its pages. That, of

62 MORDECAI M. NOAH

course, was sufficient authority for the belief that
the city of Ararat was founded on that spot by
Mordecai Manuel Noah.

"The mill was taken down about the year 1850,
and the monument becoming time-worn and
dilapidated, was taken down also. We had no
historical society in Buffalo then, and although the
stone was my property, I had become careless of
its possession, and, soon afterwards, Mr. Wallace
Baxter, who owned a farm a couple of miles above
Whithaven, on the river shore, took the stone
and carried it to his place. By this removal, the
farm of Baxter — taking the stone as authority —
became as much the site of Ararat as White-
haven had been. In the year 1864, the late Mr.
Charles H. Waite, of this City, opened a water-
ing place — "Sheenwater" — on the opposite, or
Canadian side of the island, and Mr. Baxter
carried the stone over there for the delectation of
the visitors who congregated to that resort, thus
establishing another locality of the renewed
Ararat. Mr. Waite's house having burned a few
months after the stone was removed there, he
carefully placed it in an outhouse on the premises,
where it remained until the last summer, when I
obtained his leave to take it again in my posses-
sion, which I did, and deposited it on my farm
at the head of Grand Island, one of the original
tracts of land which Mr. Leggett had purchased
for Major Noah. There, too, had the traveling
public seen it, might have been located another
site for the Hebrew city. A short time after-

MORDECAI M.NOAH 63

wards I had the corner-stone taken to my prem-
ises on Niagara street, in this city; the same to
which General Porter then owning them, had
removed it, previous to the year 1834. A few-
weeks later it was again — and, I trust, finally —
removed, and on the second day of January, in
the year 1866, deposited in the official room of
the Buffalo Historical Society, where it is duly
honored w^ith a conspicuous position against its
eastern wall, leaving the Hebrew "City of Ararat",
a myth — never having existence, save in the
prurient imagination of its projector, a record of
which the table bears.

"Like the dove which went out from the Ark
of his great patriarchal progenitor, the stone of
the latter has come back to its domicile, not
in the Ark, but to the city which, in its embryo
existence, first gave it shelter and protection, and,
we trust, — unlike the dove, — to again go out no
more. Just forty years from its exodus from the
communion-table of the church of St. Paul, like
the children of ancient Israel, has this eventful
stone — meantime crossing, not the parted waters
of the Red Sea, but the transparent waters of the
Niagara, resting by the wayside, and traveling
through the wilderness in circuitous wanderings —
found its home in the rooms of the Buffalo
Historical Society.

"Thus ends the strange, eventful history of
Major Noah, his Hebrew city and its corner-
stone. Although that portion of the public, away
from Buffalo, who ever heard anything of this

64 MORDECAI M. NOAH

modern Ararat, have believed, since the year 1825,
that Major Noah actually purchased Grand Island,
and founded his city, and laid his corner-stone
upon it, the fact is, that he never owned an acre
of its land, nor founded the city, nor laid a
corner-stone there. Nor have I been able, after
diligent inquiry, to ascertain that he ever set foot
on the island. I have heard sundry traditions,
lately, of his going there at the time he visited
Buffalo in the year 1825. All these w^ere con-
tradictory, and partially guess-work; no one, so
far as I have ascertained, ever saw him there.
Thus that point may be considered as definitely
settled."

There was some foreign comment on Noah's
Ararat plan which should be noted. Heinrich
Heine mentioned the self-appointed Messiah as a
butt for humorous reference in his correspond-
ence with his friend Moses Moser. It is not
strange that Heine should have written on the
subject to Moser, who was his most intimate
friend until 1830, and as Noah had been
elected a member of the Verein fiir Kiiltur nnd
Wissenschaft des Judentnms, of which Dr. Zunz
and Professor Gans were, together with Moser,
the founders. It will be remembered that Gans
and Zunz had been named by Noah as two of
the commissioners for Germany, the other being
Dr. Leo Woolf of Hamburg, who were to assist
in carrying into effect the Proclamation. In a
letter from Heine to Moser under date of March
23rd, 1826, we read, *'I dreamed, too, that Gans

MORDECAI M. NOAH 65

and Mordecai Noah met in Strahlau and that
Gans, strange to say, was as silent as a fish.
Zunz stood nearby smiling sarcastically, and said
to his wife, 'Do you see, my mousie, I believe
that Lehman' (Joseph Lehmann, the German
journalist) 'delivered a long speech' (apparently
in reference to Noah) 'in a grandiose tone, and
adorned with expressions such as "enlighten-
ment", "change of circumstances", and "the prog-
ress of the Weltgeist," a long speech, during
which I did not fall asleep, but on the contrary,
awoke.' " It is doubtful whether any favorable
comment had been expressed abroad at all. Abra-
ham de Cologna, Chief Rabbi of Paris, protested
against the carrying out of the project; Judah
Jeitteles advised the Jews of Austria against immi-
gration and ridiculed the undertaking.

Noah's fervor for the actual settlement of dis-
persed Jews was somewhat dampened by the
failure of his Ararat project; but the idea never
left his mind. From this time on, we find it con-
stantly occupying a prominent part of important
addresses delivered by him. Despite the fact
that he considered the settlement of Ararat as the
solution of the Jewish problem, it is very evident,
from several hints in his proclamation, that he
considered this as merely a preliminary step to
the final re-establishment of the Jewish state in
Palestine. It is only natural, therefore, that the
Holy Land should have become in his nationalist
activity, the goal of his desires. One of the most
interesting of his lectures was delivered before

66 MORDECAI M.NOAH

the Mercantile Library Association in New York,
in the year 1837, on *'The Evidences of The
American Indians being the Descendants of the
Lost Tribes of Israel". The discourse is signifi-
cant, not because of any ethnological value that
may be attached to it, but because the subject
served Noah with an opportunity to express his
hope for the consummation of Jewish nationalist
ideals. After laboriously accumulating a mass of
material by which he endeavored to prove the
identity of the Indians as the Lost Tribes, Noah
seemed deliberately to have forgotten all about
this point at the end of his discussion and con-
cluded in the following words :

''Our prophet Isaiah has a noble reference to
the dispersed tribes and their redemption, which
may be here appropriately quoted. I use his
language, the Hebrew, which from its peculiar
associations should be always interesting to you."
Here Noah quoted in Hebrew from Isaiah, Cap.
XI, xi:

iDy n«tr nw m:p'7 n*" rr'Jtr •'n^ ^-'dt' i^^nn orn n'^n^
trir>Di DnnsDi nn^^DJiDi mi:*«D ^i^^^ n^«

and translating, "And it shall come to pass in
that day, that the Lord shall set his hand the
second time to recover the remnant of his people,
which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt,
and from Pathros, and from Cush, etc."

''Possibly, the restoration may be near enough
to include even a portion of these interesting
people (the Indians). Our learned Rabbis have
always deemed it sinful to compute the period of

MORDECAI M.NOAH 67

the restoration ; they believe that when the sins
of the nation were atoned for, the miracle of their
redemption would be manifested. My faith does
not rest wholly in miracles — Providence disposes i (
of events, human agency must carry them out.
That benign and supreme power which the
children of Israel have never forsaken, has pro-
tected the chosen people amidst the most ap-
palling dangers, has saved them from the up-
lifted sword of the Egyptians, the Assyrians, the
Medes, the Persians, the Greeks and the Romans,
and while the most powerful nations of antiquity
have crumbled to pieces, we have been preserved,
united and unbroken, the same now as we were
in the days of the patriarchs — brought from
darkness to light, from the early and rude periods
of learning to the bright reality of civilization, of
arts, of education and of science.

"The Jewish people must now do something I I
for themselves ; they must move onward to the ^
accomplishment of that great event long fore-
told, long promised — long expected; and when
they do move, that mighty power which has for
thousands of years rebuked the proscription and
intolerance shown to the Jews, by a benign pro-
tection of the whole nation, will still cover them
with his invincible standard.

"My belief is that Syria will revert to the
Jewish nation by purchase, and that the facility ..
exhibited in the accumulation of wealth, has been \\
2l providential and peculiar gift to enable them, at
a proper time, to re-occupy their ancient posses-

68 MORDECAI M.NOAH

sions by the purse-string instead of the sword.

"We live in a remarkable age, and political
events are producing extraordinary changes
among the nations of the earth.

"Russia, with its gigantic power, continues to
press hard on Turkey. The Pacha of Egypt, tak-
ing advantage of the improvements and inven-
tions of men of genius, is extending his territory
and influence to the straits of Babelmandel on the
Red Sea, and to the borders of the Russian
Empire; and the combined force of Russia, Tur-
key, Persia, and Egypt, seriously threaten the
safety of British possessions in the East Indies.
An intermediate and balancing power is required
) to check this thirst of conquest and territorial pos-
session,, and to keep in check the advances of
Russia and Turkey and Persia, and the ambition
and love of conquest in Egypt. This can be done by
restoring Syria to its rightful owners, not by revo-
lution or blood, but as I have said, by the pur-
chase of that territory from the Pacha of Egypt,
for a sum of money too tempting in its amount
for him to refuse, in the present reduced state of
his coffers. Twelve or thirteen millions of dol-
lars have been spoken of in reference to the
cession of that interesting territory, a sum of no
consideration to the Jews, for the good will and
peaceable possession of a land, which to them is
above all price. Under the co-operation and pro-
tection of England and France, this re-occupation
I jof Syria within its old territorial limits, is at once
'reasonable and practicable.

MORDECAI M. NOAH 69

"By opening the ports of Damascus, Tripoli,
Joppa, Acre, etc., the whole of the commerce of
Turkey, Egypt and the Mediterranean will be in
the hands of those, who even now in part, control
the commerce of Europe. From the Danube, the
Dniester, the Ukraine, Wallachia and Moldavia,
the best of agriculturalists would revive the
former fertility of Palestine. Manufacturers from
Germany and Holland; an army of experience
and bravery from France and Italy; ingenuity,
intelligence, activity, energy and enterprise from
all parts of the world, under a just, tolerant and
a liberal government, present a formidable barrier
to the encroachments of surrounding powers, and
be a bulwark to the interests of England and
France, as well as the rising liberties of Greece.

"Once again unfurl the standard of Judah on
Mount Zion, the four corners of the earth will
give up the chosen people as the sea will give up
its dead, at the sound of the last trumpet. Let
the cry be Jerusalem, as it was in the days of
Saracen and the lion-hearted Richard of England,
and the rags and wretchedness which have for
eighteen centuries enveloped the persons of the
Jews, crushed as they were by persecution and
injustice, will fall to earth ; and they will stand
forth, the richest, the most powerful, the most in-
telligent nation on the face of the globe, with
incalculable wealth, and holding in pledge the
crowns and sceptres of kings. Placed in posses-
sion of their ancient heritage by and with the
consent and co-operation of their Christian breth-

I

70 MORDECAI M.NOAH

ren, establishing a government of peace and good
will on earth, it may then be said, behold the
fulfillment of prediction and prophecy; behold
the chosen and favored people of the Almighty
God, who in defense of his unity and omnipotence,
have been the outcast and proscribed of all na-
tions, and who for thousands of years have pa-
tiently endured the severest of human sufferings,
in the hope of that great advent of which they
never have despaired : and then when taking their
rank once more among the nations of the earth,
with the good wishes and affectionate regards
of the great family of mankind, they may by
their tolerance, their good faith, their charity and
enlarged liberal views, merit what has been said
in their behalf by inspired writers, "Blessed are
they who bless Israel."

At this point, it may be noted, as an instance
of his keen interest in things Jewish, that in 1840,
Noah, together with Mr. Alex S. Gould, published
a translation of "The Book of Jasher". Edited
by Major Noah, he did not pretend that the work
was the true historical chronicle, but merely de-
clared it to be a translation of a very ancient
Hebrew manuscript. The editor, in a rather
negative way, did hazard the opinion, however,
that it might have been the book referred to in
Joshua and Second Samuel. The publication
excited the attention of a number of eminent
critics, by whom it was unanimously declared to
be a great literary curiosity, meriting attention in
many respects. The book, thus published in

i

DISCOURSE

ox Q{B

■HESTORATION OF THE JEWS:

DBUVESBP JT TSB TABEKNACLB, OCT. 99 Atn OBC % ISll

BY M. M. NOAH.

Cartt^ a SUip of l(e JLjiRH of SststU

HEW-YORK:

nAR?£R St BBpTffER^ Sit CUrr-STReBT'

1645.

[Fac-simile of title page]

72 MORDECAI M. NOAH

English for the first time, was said to have been
discovered in Jerusalem at its capture under
Titus, and printed in Venice in 1613.

The third and last of Noah's plans for the
rehabilitation of the Jewish nation was sent
forth in his famous ''Discourse on the Restora-
tion of the Jews", delivered on October 28th and
December 2nd, 1844, before large audiences of
Jews and Christians, and attracting much atten-
tion at the time, his address being reported at
length in the newspapers of the day. This at-
tempt was a passionate appeal by one to whose
heart there was nothing dearer than the destiny
of his people and whose faith in his Christian
countrymen was such that he believed that
through them our hopes were to be realized. He
saw a beautiful vision and he painted it in glow-
ing oratory to the America that he so loved
and trusted. He told them of the richness of the
Palestinian soil, the wonders of the climate, how
"coffee trees grew almost spontaneously and
every fruit flourished." He enumerated what
advantages would accrue to the rest of the world
after Jewish occupation, telling them that "this
may be the glorious result of any liberal move-
ment you may be disposed to make in promoting
the final destiny of the Chosen People."

The United States could, according to Noah,
by a single effort, acquire for the Jewish nation
liberty and independence. "The United States,
the only country which has given civil and
religious rights to the Jews equal with all other

MORDECAI M. NOAH 7Z

sects; the only country which has not persecuted
them, has been selected and pointedly distin-
guished in the prophecy as the nation, which, at
a proper time, shall present to the Lord His
chosen and down-trodden people, and pave the
way for the restoration to Zion. But will they go,
I am asked, when the day of redemption arrives?
All will go who feel the oppressor's yoke. We may
repose where we are free and happy, but those
will go who, bowed to the earth by oppression,
would gladly exchange a condition of vassalage
for the hope of freedom : that hope the Jews can
never surrender; they can not stand up against
the prediction of our prophets, against the prom-
ises of God ; they cease to be a nation, a people, a
sect, when they do so. Let the people go — point
out the path for them in safety, and they will go,
not all, but sufficient to constitute he elements of
a powerful government, and those who are happy
here may cast their eyes toward the sun as it rises,
and know that it rises on a free and happy people
beyond the mountains of Judaea, and feel doubly
happy in the conviction that God has redeemed
all his promises to Jacob.... I should think
that the very idea, the hope, the prospect, and
above all, the certainty of restoring Israel to his
own and promised land, would arouse the whole
civilized world to a cordial and happy co-oper-
ation. ..."

"Let me therefore impress upon your minds the
important fact, that the liberty and independence
of the Jewish nation may grow out of a single

74 MORDECAI M. NOAH

effort which this country may make in their
behalf. That effort is to procure for them a
permission to purchase and hold land in security
and peace; their titles and possessions confirmed;
their fields and flocks undisturbed. They want
only protection, and the work is accomplished.
The Turkish government cannot be insensible to
the fact that clouds are gathering around them,
and destiny, in which they wholly confide, teaches
them to await the day of trouble and dismember-
ment. It is to their interest to draw around
them the friendly aid and co-operation of the
Jewish people throughout the world, by con-
ferring these reasonable and just privileges upon
them, and when Christianity exerts its powerful
agency, and stretches forth its friendly hand, the
right solicited will be cheerfully conferred. When
the Jewish people can return to Palestine, and
feel that in their persons and property they are
as safe from danger as they are under Christian
governments, they will make their purchases of
select positions, and occupy them peaceably and
prosperously ; confidence will with them take the
place of distrust and, by degrees, the population
in every part of Syria being greatly increased,
will become consolidated, and ready to unfold the
standard when political events shall demonstrate
to them that the time has arrived."

It is only natural that a man so versatile and
picturesque as Major Noah should excite the
interest of men of letters. He has been celebrated
in fiction by Israel Zangwill and Alfred Henry

MORDECAI M. NOAH 75

Lewis. In "Peggy O'Neal", by Lewis, a narrative
centering around President Andrew Jackson and
the social life in Washington during his administra-
tion, Noah is pictured as a strong partisan of the
General's, ever ready with his advice and his
sword-arm to aid his side. Mordecai Noah runs
in and out of the interesting novel in intermittent
fashion "like a needle through cloth", as the
author himself aptly terms it.

"His sewing, however, is of the friendliest," we
read, "for he was loyal to the General as any soul
who breathed." The sketch of Noah in "Peggy
O'Neal" is almost historically accurate in its
fundamentals, except that, for the sake of draw-
ing a consistent and attractive character who is
always materially friendly to the hero and the
heroine, there are occasional departures from
fact.

Lewis, who wrote in a captivating style, intro-
duces Major Noah as a writer of plays and an
editor. "Moreover," he continues, "he was a
gentleman of substance and celebration in New
York City, where his paper did stout service for
the General. Noah had also been America's
envoy to the Barbary States during the years of
Madison. A Hebrew of purest strain, Noah was
of the Tribe of Judah and the House of David,
and the wiseacres of his race told his lineage, and
that he was descended of David in a right line
and would be a present King of the Jews were it
not that the latter owned neither country nor
throne. Noah was of culture and quiet penetra-

Id MORDECAI M. NOAH

tion ; withal cunning and fertile to a degree. Also,
I found his courage to be the steadiest; he would
fight with slight reason, and had in a duel some
twenty years before, with the first fire, killed one
Cantor, a flamboyant person — the world might
well spare him — on the Charleston racetrack,
respectably at ten paces. I incline to grant space
favorable to Noah ; for he played his part with
an integrity as fine as his intelligence, while his
own modesty, coupled with that vulgar dislike of
Jews by one who otherwise might have named
him in the annals of that day, has operated to
obscure his name."

Far more interesting to us, in our discussion of
Noah from the Jewish viewpoint, is Zangwill's
story, "Noah's Ark", a story which has a mystical
fascination. It stands on ''the firmer Ararat of
history", as Mr. Zangwill notes in his preface to
"They That Walk in Darkness", comparing it to
the other tragedies included in the same volume,
"my invention being confined to the figure of
Peloni (the Hebrew for 'nobody')." It is largely
through the popularity of Mr. Zangwill's works
that the character of Noah is generally known,
and it does not require great foresight to foretell
that, without a less fictional interpretation of
Noah's attempt to found a Jewish state in
America, the whole account will become a sadly
beautiful legend.

Peloni, on a summer's day in 1825, remarks an
unwonted stir in the Judengasse of Frankfurt,
Germany. On approaching the Synagogue he

MORDECAI M. NOAH 11

finds a loitering crowd reading a long Proclama-
tion in a couple of folio sheets nailed on the door.
It was Noah's pronunciamento to the Jews of
the world announcing the restoration of Israel.
The crowd received the announcement, but coldly,
and derisive comments followed one after the
other. Peloni did not heed them. **For God's
sake, brethren!" cried he. "this is no joke. Have
you forgotten already that here we are only
animals?"

Nobody other than Peloni was impressed with
the announcement by the self-appointed Judge of
Israel. "Noah's a madman, and you're an infant,"
Peioni's friends told him.

So he sailed for New York alone.

Using Peioni's character as a vehicle for carry-
ing him through the history of Noah's project,
Mr. Zangwill touches the high points of the
event and renders an almost accurate account of
the whole operation.

In the story it is related that Peloni met Noah,
and the Judge of Israel commissioned him to
place the flag of Israel on Grand Island. Peloni
proceeded to the place and planted the flagstaff
in the ground, and the flag bearing the Lion of
Judah and the seven stars flapped in the face of
an inattentive universe. Meantime, "appropriate"
ceremonies in St. Paul's Church in Buft'alo were
conducted by ^lajor Noah. A salvo of twenty-
four guns rounded off the great day of Israel's
restoration. . . .

"Peloni remained on the Island. He heard

78 MORDECAI M. NOAH

faintly the cannonading that preceded and con-
cluded the laying of the foundation stone in the
chancel of the church, and he expected Noah the
next day at the latest. But the next day passed,
and no Noah. Only a letter and some news-
papers sent by messenger by the Judge of Israel,
reporting "glorious success, thank Heaven".

* * *

"So winter came, and there was still nothing

to record It was very lonely.... Peloni

had heard from no one, neither from Noah, nor
Smith, nor any Jewish or even Indian pilgrim to
the New Jerusalem. The old despair began to
twine round him like some serpent of ice. As he
listened in such moods to the distant thunder of
Niagara — which waxed louder as the air grew
heavier, till it quite dominated the ever present
rumble of the rapids — the sound took on endless
meanings to his feverish brain. Now it was no
longer the voice of the Eternal Being, it was the
endless plaint of Israel beseeching the deaf
heaven, the roar of prayer from some measureless
synagogue ; now it was the raucous voice of per-
secution, the dull bestial roar of malicious multi-
tudes ; and again it was the voice of the whole
earth, groaning and travailing. And the horror of
it was that it would not stop. It dropped on his
brain, this falling water, as on the prisoner's in
the mediaeval torture chamber. Could no one
stop this turning wheel of the world, jar it grind-
ing to a standstill?

"Spring wore slowly round again. The icicles

MORDECAI M.NOAH 79

melted, the friezes dripped away, the fantastic
mufflers slipped from the trees, and the young
buds peeped out and the young birds sang. The
river flowed uncurdled, the cataracts fell un-
clogged.

"In Peloni's breast alone the ice did not melt:
No new sap stirred in his veins. The very rain-
bows on the leaping mist were now only of the
Biblical promise that the world would go on
forever ; forever the wheel would turn, and Israel
wander homeless. And at last, one sunny day, a
boat arrived with a message from the Master.
Alas ! even Noah had abandoned Ararat. "I am
beginning to see", he wrote, "that our only hope
is Palestine. Zion alone has magnetism for the
Jew."

"Peloni wandered automatically to the apex of
the island at Burnt Ship Bay, and stood gazing
meaninglessly at the fragments of the sunken
ships. Before him raced the rapids, frenziedly
anxious for the great leap. Even so, he thought,
had Noah and he dreamed Israel would haste to
Ararat. And Niagara maintained its mocking
roar — its roar of gigantic laughter.

"Re-erect Solomon's Temple in Palestine !"

"As he lifted his swimming eyes he saw to his
astonishment that he was no longer alone. A
tall majestic figure stood gazing at him : a grave,
sorrowful Indian, feathered and tufted, habited
only in buckskin leggings, and girdled by a belt
of wampum. A musket in his hand showed he
had been hunting, and a canoe Peloni now saw

80 MORDECAI M. NOAH

tethered to the bank indicated he was going back
to his lodge. Peloni knew from his talks with
the Tonawanda Indians opposite Ararat that this
was Red Jacket, the famous chief of the Iroquois,
the ancient lords of the soil. Peloni tendered the
salute due to the royalty stamped on the man.
Red Jacket ceremoniously acknowledged the
obeisance. They gazed silently at each other, the
puny, stooping scholar from the German Ghetto,
and the stalwart, kingly savage.

*'Tell me," said Red Jacket imperiously, "what
nation are you that build a monument but never
a city like the other white men, nor even a camp
like my people?"

"Great Chief," replied Peloni in his best Iro-
quois, "We are a people that build for others."

"I would ye would build for my people then.
For these white men sweep us back, farther,
farther, till there is nothing but" — and he made
an eloquent gesture, implying the sweep into the
river, into the jaws of the hurrying rapids. "Yet,
methinks, I heard of a plan of your people — of
a great pow-wow of your chiefs in a church, of
a great city to be born here."

"It is dead before birth," said Peloni.

"Strange," mused Red Jacket. "Scarce twenty
summers ago Joseph Elliott came here to plan
out his city on a soil that was not his, and lo!
this Buffalo rises already mighty and menacing.
To-morrow it will be at my wigwam door — and
we" — another gesture, hopeless, yet full of regal
dignity, rounded off the sentence.

MORDECAI M.NOAH 81

"And in that instant it was borne in upon
Peloni that they were indeed brothers : The Jew
who stood for the world that could not be born
again, and the Red Indian who stood for the
world that must pass away. Yes, they both were
doomed. Israel had been too bent and broken
by the long dispersion and the long persecution :
the spring was snapped ; he could not recover.
He had been too long the pliant protege of kings
and popes : he had prayed too many centuries in
too many countries for the simultaneous welfare
of too many governments, to be capable of realiz-
ing that government of his own for which he
likewise prayed. This pious patience — this re-
jection of the burden onto the shoulders of Messiah
and Miracle — was it more than the veil of un-
conscious impotence? Ah, better sweep oneself
away than endure long ignominy. And Niagara
laughed on.

"May I have the privilege of crossing in your
canoe?" he asked.

"You are not afraid?" said Red Jacket. "The
rapids are dangerous here."

"Afraid !" Peloni's inward laughter seemed to
match Niagara's.

"When he got to the mainland, he made
straight for the Falls. He was on the American
side, and he paused on the sward, on the very
brink of the tameless cataract, that had for im-
memorial ages been driving itself backward by
eating away its own rock. His fascinated eyes

82 MORDECAI M. NOAH

watched the curious smooth, purring slide of the
vast mass of green water of the sharp edges, un-
ending, unresting, the eternal revolution of a
maddening, imperturbable wheel. O that blind
wheel, turning, while the generations waxed and
waned, one succeeding the other without haste
or rest or possibility of pause: creatures of
meaningless majesty, shadows of shadows, dream-
ing of love and justice and fading into the kindred
mist, while this solid green cataract roared and
raced through aeons innumerable, stable as the
stars, thundering in majestic meaninglessness.
And suddenly he threw himself into its remorse-
less whirl and was sucked down into the mon-
strous chaos of seething waters and whirled and
hurled amid the rocks, battered and shapeless,
but still holding Noah's letter in his convulsively
clinched hand, while the rainbowed spray leapt
impassively heavenward.

"The corner-stone of Ararat lies in the rooms
of the Buffalo Historical Society, and no one who
copies the inscription dreams that it is the grave-
stone of Peloni.

"And while the very monument has mouldered
away in Ararat, Buflfalo sits throned amid her
waters, the Queen City of the Empire State, with
the world's commerce at her feet. And from
their palaces of Medina sandstone, the Christian
railroad kings go out to sail in their luxurious ,
yachts — vessels not of bulrushes but driven by
steam, as predicted by Mordecai Manuel Noah,
Governor and Judge of Israel."

MORDECAI M. NOAH S3

In this connection, it is interesting to note that
Mr. Zangwill, speaking before the London Uni-
versity Society, on the occasion of the twenty-
fifth anniversary of Pinsker's death,* in a very
interesting manner Hnked the names of Noah,
Pinsker and Herzl. "Pinsker's Auto-Emancipa-
tion", he said, "pubHshed in 1881, was a brilliant
anticipation of much later history and literature,
and its brilliance was not that of flowers or jewels
but of fire".

"Its problem was seen with a burning sense of
the great Jewish tragedy and resolved in words
of flame," continued Mr. Zangwill. ''It was a
great book. Yet Herzl, when he wrote his
"Judenstaat" in 1895, had probably never heard
of it, and this, though Pinsker's book had pre-
ceded his in calling forth a Congress from almost
every country of Europe. I said that Pinsker was
the father of all Auto-Emancipation. But it is a
wise child that knows his own father, and I, too,
had never seen this book till years after the Ito
was established. Before Pinsker, there had been
the American Sephardi, Mordecai Manuel Noah,
who in 1825 not only planned a great Jewish
colony on an island in the State of New York,
but actually bought land for it, and issued an in-
vitation to the Ghettos of Europe to flock to his
Ararat, and even held the Dedication Service — as
readers of my story, "Noah's Ark", may re-
member. How comes it that a Russian like

♦December 16, 1916.

84 MORDECAI M.NOAH

Pinsker, an Austrian like Herzl, an American like
Noah, and an Englishman like myself, are all
found putting forth the same solution of the
Jewish problem? Is it plagiarism? Not at all.
Herzl, Pinsker, Noah, were in sublime uncon-
sciousness of one another. It is because there is
what the advertisements call "a. felt want", and
this want prompts everywhere the same sug-
gestion for meeting it. The bulk of our troubles
springing from our lack of a common land or
even of a majority anywhere, it is a natural sug-
gestion that we should re-establish ourselves
upon a normal national basis.

"The interesting fact remains," said Mr. Zang-
will, "that Herzl's Congress, called for Territorial-
ism, ended in the adoption of Palestine as its goal,
that Pinsker's Congress, called for Territorialism,
ended in a society to aid Palestine immigrants,
and that even Noah's institution, "Ararat", was
replaced by a rallying call to Zion."

Through the changing years, Noah has been
remembered. Here and there a chance sentence
in an obscure work, now and then a little story
or anectode, indicate that he will not be entirely
forgotten. Interpret his endeavors as a Jewish
nationalist however one will, there remains chiefly
the fact that all of his efforts must inevitably
have failed because of the remoteness of America
from the great Jewish centers of population and
learning during the early nineteenth century and
because of the unpropitious times. No careful
analysis of why Noah failed is necessary in these

MORDECAI M.NOAH 85

days, for the reasons are, in the light of history,
simple enough and obvious to all.

History tells us that in every clime, at every
period, all sorts and conditions of men have boldly
entered the arena willing to battle for Jewish
liberty and national security. They have been,
for the most part, men of genius and understand-
ing and something more than mere dreamers.
Out of the mist of the past a finger ever points
toward the hills of Judaea, and we who live con-
scious of our heritage shall ever strive to regain
that for which our forefathers so valiantly sacri-
ficed their blood, and which, having achieved,
they lost as brave men and true.

There is a land forever Israel's. The grey,
cold hand of a merciless Fate may temporarily
scatter us, cast us among the nations, strangers
in strange lands, wayfarers in foreign countries,
but we shall ever turn our eyes eastward, the
hope and homesickness of centuries in our hearts,
a prayer on our lips. Enticing gifts of social and
political equality may lure many from our ranks,
the oppressor's knout may weaken our powers,
but rather than forget Jerusalem we should relin-
quish our right to live, and we shall never fail to
believe in the restoration of Israel to his own —
else, we fail to grasp the significance of our
history. Neither kindness nor cruelty will anni-
hilate us, is the warning of Time. We will fear
God — and take our own part.

APPENDIX A

ON FASHION, by Mordecai Manuel Noah, in

"Gleanings From A Gathered Harvest."

New York, 1845.

Dame Fortune has been generally represented
as blind and fickle, and I have often thought that
Fashion should also be personified. If we call
her a dame, she must be more fickle and eccentric
than ever Fortune was.

The variety of changes to which the civilized
world has been subjected by Fashion, and the in-
ordinate extravagance which has resulted from
these useless changes, have produced incalculable
evils in laying a foundation for waste and pro-
fusion, the ill effects of which are constantly
felt. In former times, a house was furnished
with the utmost prudence — no useless article was
ever purchased — and the high backed mahogany
chairs, the heavy carved mirrors, the bed and
double curtains, and all the ornaments of the
mansion, were selected for their lasting and use-
ful qualities. If, after an absence of twenty
years, a friend returned to his country, his eyes
were greeted with the same old-fashioned, yet
ponderous furniture, which time had familiarized,
and even rendered dear to him ; he saw and
recognized the old china jars, the sprigged tea-
cups and flowered plates, the old chased sugar
dish and teapot, the spinnet, the highly polished

[86]

MORDECAI m; NOAH 9,7

wardrobe, in which were deposited the brocade
dresses of his grandma and the embroidered
waistcoats of his grandfather; all these objects
revived the recollection of earlier days, of happier
moments, and served to increase that attachment
to home, in which are centered so many enjoy-
ments. But now the scene is altered, and the
furniture of a house is changed as frequently as
a coat and waistcoat. Instead of the useful and
durable, we have the light and flimsy ornaments
of a drawing room : gilt vases, cut glass chande-
liers, grand pianos, silk curtains, and all the para-
phernalia of a fairy's palace. Immense fortunes
are thus thrown away on these fickle, thought-
less changes, and, as Peter Trot says, "the up-
holsterer has scarcely done knocking up, when in
comes the auctioneer and knocks down."

Thus fashion may be called fickle, expensive,
and some times imperative ; it ought to be re-
sisted with firmness and decision. I would, by no
means, be so much "out of fashion" as to be
peculiarly strange and absurd ; but to follow all
its eccentricities, to be a slave to its caprices ; and
ruined by its changes, is to be, at once, deaf to
prudence, discretion, and good sense.

It is not over the domestic organization alone,
that fashion exercises a powerful influence ; it
extends to the person, and is equally as fickle and
as costly in matters of dress and personal orna-
ment. Look into the bureaus and trunks of
modern men of fashion, and see the number of
coats, waistcoats, pantaloons, hats, and boots.

88 MORDECAI M. NOAH

Why this unnecessary accumulation of clothing?
Why purchase more than is absolutely necessary
to make a respectable appearance? Think you it
adds to the importance of a man to wear a blue
coat at breakfast, a pea green at dinner, and a
black in the evening? Then the ladies, have they
not many superfluities, and might they not forego
a number with convenience and advantage? Are
there not many expenses which they could curtail
— many trifles which they could economize? It
frequently happens, that both male and female,
by following fashion with an extreme devotion,
and pursuing her through every mazy course,
only fall into ludicrous errors, and frequently cut
a very sorry figure.

A few evenings since, I casually paid a visit to
an old friend, and was surprised to find the rooms
illuminated and filled with gayly dressed ladies
and gentlemen. I took my seat on a sofa, be-
tween two pretty smiling lasses, who said many
handsome things to me, though I am not now a
young man. The conversation at last turned on
fashions, taste, extravagance, and so on, to
domestic economy. A young gentleman, whose
impudence equalled his folly, came in front of
the sofa, and stood before the ladies, in an atti-
tude inexpressibly inelegant, though it may have
been fashionable; he had on a pair of petticoat
pantaloons, varnished boots, flashy silk vest, his
waist compressed by corsets to nearly the shape
of a wasp's; a cravat which nearly choked him;
rings and seals in the usual quantity; the animal

MORDECAI M. NOAH 89

straddled before the ladies, with his thumbs
elegantly hitched in the flaps of his pantaloons,
or dangling his yellow kids, and with a squeaking
effeminate voice, pronounced sentence of dis-
pleasure on all these meddling busy bodies, and
would-be scribblers, who, having no money of
their own, insolently obtruded their advice on
men of fashion, and presumed to dictate about
what they had neither the ability to understand
nor the sense to appreciate ! He liked sentiment,
he said, evening dress — 'pon honor, he had a
natural horror of all sentimental boobies, who
could not understand the dignity of taste and
fashion — so he had! The ladies smiled, but not
in approbation, and they seemed rather to enjoy
the appearance which this caricature of humanity
made, now holding a glass of ice cream in one
hand, and with the other occasionally arranging
his bushy hair, and rendering himself more fright-
ful and disgusting.

At this period, the sky, which had been over-
cast, became quite black, and peals of thunder
broke upon the ear, accompanied with vivid
flashes of lightning. The ladies arose somewhat
discomposed; but one, young and beautiful, with
whom I was conversing, turned from me very
quickly, put her hand to her bosom, and drew out
a piece of long black iron or steel, which in her
confusion, she let fall — I stooped, picked it up,
and handed it to her, observing that confusion.
"It is my corset bone," whispered she ; *T am so
afraid of the lightning that I have to take it

90 MORDECAI M.NOAH

out — do keep it for me, dear Sir, and don't look
angry; it is the fashion, and it is French also!"

Alas! what is fashion to bring us to? A young
and lively female casing herself in steel, flying
from the elements, binding and compressing her
delicate frame and blasting her fair skin by the
rude embrace of a vile black substance, checking
respiration, obstructing the full use of her lungs
and muscles, laying the foundation for cramps,
pains, and consumption, and courting death, dis-
guised in the alluring and illusive shape of
Fashion! "Fie on't! O, fie!"

APPENDIX B

Some idea of the prominence and position of
Major Noah is conveyed by the following editorial
which appeared in "The Asmonean" (N. Y.), on
March 28th, 1851. The editor of this periodical,
"the organ of American Israelites", was Robert
Lyon. The editorial page of the issue which in-
cluded this tribute to Noah was bordered in
heavy black, and fully two columns were devoted
to an account of the funeral, which was attended
by a "dense throng of persons" including "the
representatives of the Bench, the Bar, and the
Mart, without distinction of creed; doctors,
authors, musicians, comedians, editors, mechanics,
professionals and non-professionals, all classes
vieing with each other in eager desire to offer a
tribute of respect to the mortal remains of Major
Noah...."

MORDECAI M.NOAH 91

MORDECAI M. NOAH
(Editorial from "The Asmonean", March 28, 1851)

Among the many parables of our sages of which
we have an indistinct recollection, and which
current circumstances often vividly revive in our
mind, there is one, that, standing beside the bier
of our lamented friend, came back with full force,
and we saw how inconclusive was the application
of the moral put forth by the closest reasoner,
then and there tried by the severe test of reality.
"When a man comes into the world," says the
philosopher, "his hands are tightly closed, as if
he meant to say thereby : 'The world is mine ; I
will conquer it.' When he leaves the world his
hands are relaxed and open, as if he meant to
say : *Of things belonging to this world I have
conquered for myself — nothing.' " Lost in con-
templation, we gazed on the rapt multitude swal-
lowing with eager ears the flowing words of the
orator, and we asked of ourselves, if all we saw
that day — if the funeral cortege of a thousand
men, if the weeping orphans, the mourning re-
latives, the troops of sorrowing friends, the bands
of distressed associates, the aspect of regret
visible on every countenance, the measured tread
and the solemn chant, the voice of eulogy and
the wail of lament — meant nothing — were nothing.
If so, life was nothing; and controverting the
treasured words of the preacher, the poor mor-
tality which lay in our presence cold and inani-
mate, beneath the velvet pall, was better than the

92 MORDECAI M. NOAH

active, sentient and robust that had assembled
that day to perform the sad office of committing
it to its fellow dust. But we saw that life had
a purpose: that the days of the pilgrimage of the
departed had not been like the patriarch of old —
few and evil ; but his acts of duty, deeds of kind-
ness and works of pious charity, had a purpose
and a utility, which would endure long after the
frail form which we had been accustomed to
look up to had undergone that mystical transmu-
tation, which is one of the great truths of crea-
tion. Could we think otherwise; even the funeral
of Mordecai M. Noah was, like his life, a lesson
and a stimulant to all that came within the sphere
of its activity. To his sons the name they inherit
ought to be infinitely more valuable than a patri-
mony of dirty acres ; for their father has be-
queathed to them a patent of nobility, rich and
rare ; priceless and unobtainable, except by a long
exercise of unvaried goodness ; procured only by
the rare union of mind and heart in one unceas-
ing course of benevolence, sealed and guaranteed
by that peerless ratification, the unbought loyalty
of his fellow-citizens. Will they use it well? Will
they adequately perform the duties it imposes on
them? Society has an interest in the question,
for M. M. Noah lived for the community; labored
long and zealously to ameliorate the sufferings
and better the condition of his species ; his
memory, therefore, is the property of the people,
and as in life they looked upon him with love,
they now look upon it with reverence. The

MORDECAI M.NOAH 93

brightest monument his descendants can raise
to perpetuate that reverence, is ever to keep be-
fore them the bright example of the man whose
memory thousands assembled to honor.

Our readers will find an epitome of the public
acts of Major Noah's life in the funeral oration,
delivered by an eloquent divine. Of his career /
as a politician, a representative of the nation at
foreign courts, an advocate and a judge, our
contemporaries, the daily press, have spoken in
terms of unlimited approbation, and we place
their observations at the conclusion of these re-
marks, for they are indeed valuable, being the
unbought, unsought tributes of associates and
contemporaries desirous of recording their respect
and regret for the loss of a useful member of
society. Their perfect unanimity is estimable to
us as Hebrews, for we recollect, and we ask all
those who peruse this paper to bear in mind, that
Mordecai M. Noah, although not a rigid cere- )
monialist, was in heart and in spirit an Israelite.
National, judicial or municipal honors never in-
duced him to forget that he was a son of the
Covenant, and unlike the titled great of other
lands, or many of the wealthy of this, he was
proud on all occasions to say that he was of the
lineage that had Abraham for its founder, Moses
for its teacher, and the great Unity for its creed.

By birth an American, by faith a Jew, Major
Noah felt not and understood nothing of the
artificial limits and distinctions which geography
draws, or divers modes of worship create; with

94 MORDECAI M.NOAH

the hand ever open, his chanty was not restricted
to mere acts which find their reward by parade in
public journals, but his almony had vent at times
and places when or where none living saw or
knew, except the pleased recipient and the gener-
ous giver. Overflowing with the milk of human
kindness, he was ever full of projects for the
happiness of his race — sanguine and enthusiastic,
but wanting a knowledge of the intricate ways of
the world, he failed to accomplish his meritorious
designs; thus he became as it were a dreamer,
who in the fulness of his fancy permitted his
mind to wander and steal away, luxuriating over
the images of beauty and pleasure which he saw
in the ideals his generous soul produced, but the
cold, stern world called for something more,
hence his labors were often derided for im-
practicability.

For many years he has filled with honor to
himself and satisfaction to its managers the
Presidential chair of a valuable public charity,
(the "Hebrew Benevolent Society," Meshebeth
Nafesh) and his loss creates a vacuum which
there will be much difficulty to satisfactorily fill
up. His associates at that board manifested their
remembrance of his valuable guidance by specially
requesting Dr. Raphall to express at the brink of
the grave their love for him as a man and a co-
religionist, and their high appreciation of his
noble conduct as a citizen and an officer of the
State. Indefatigable in his avocation, Major Noah
was a prompt and punctual attendant at all the

MORDECAI M.NOAH 95

meetings of that society, and he lost no oppor-
tunity of pressing its claims upon public notice.
One great object, for which he had for many
years expressed a desire to found and originate,
was a Hebrew Hospital : and the last public act
of his life was taking the chair at a meeting of
the delegates of the various charities, held a few
weeks since for that purpose. Little did we then
imagine that wt should thus shortly, within a
brief month, be called upon to pen an obituary
notice of the noble hearted man. It is true,
he appeared far from well or strong on that
occasion, but in reply to our inquiries as to how
he felt, he ascribed his apparent indisposition to
Rheumatism, which, to use his own language, "he
hoped the genial warmth of summer would dis-
pel." Alas ! the bright sun of opening spring
only gave a lustre to the varnish of his hearse,
and the coming summer of which he hopefully
spoke, will give a green hue to the turf which
binds his grave.

Of his private life, all who knew him testify
to its excellence and amiability. Our personal
acquaintance with the deceased dates but a few
years back — few, compared to the long series of
years which he was fated to accomplish, but
sufficiently many to enable us by association to
learn the fervent zeal, the ardent devotion, the
unbounded benevolence with which he listened
to the voice of the distressed, sought to mitigate
the hardships of the down fallen, and endeavored
to assuage the calamities of the afflicted.

96 MORDECAI M.NOAH

As an editor, Major Noah was endowed with
considerable practical talent and ever ready tact.
A good judge of those matters has adroitly termed
him "the most graceful paragraphist in the United
States" ; he was truly so, for possessing the rare
faculty of skimming the waves of discussion, and
just hitting the subject between wind and water,
he bore the reader invariably with him..

Of his social qualities, the young and the old,
the strict conformist and the non orthodox, the
Jew and the Gentile, spontaneously bear testimony
to the charm which hovered around him. With
innumerable virtues our revered friend may be
said to have but few faults — yet, like all frail
humanity, he had a weakness, probably amounting
to a fault; even while penning the phrase, our
mind suggests a palliative, and deems the infirmity
we censure to be an excess of amiability. Un-
learned in that most skilful section of the art of*
diplomacy — duplicity. Unwilling to pain by a
negative, yet destitute of the speciousness neces-
sary to refuse with grace, the Major's political
usefulness was destroyed by his ingenuousness
rendering him a victim to crafty men ; and the
success of his public career was marred by a /j
positive incapacity to say No ; to give a denial to
a suppliant, or firmly to reject an inconsistent
proposition. However, nature made him so ; had
his organization been otherwise, he would have
been a richer — probably a wiser, but assuredly
not a happier man.

\

I

h

>'

J^

V

>^

.•^^

^v

\

0022022937

DATE DUE

,jAM i7?finfi

DF^^

GAYLORD

PRINTED IN U.SA

lis

P:St

o\'h^%\i3

t

J

r

.i '^

K«>

I

4v

E

Xii